Frontal sinus development as an indicator for somatic maturity at puberty?

The possibility of predicting the stage of somatic maturity by analyzing frontal sinus growth was evaluated. The study was performed on 53 adolescent boys, and the frontal sinus size development was assessed on lateral head films. The accuracy of the prediction procedure was tested by comparing the prediction stage with the longitudinal growth data for body height of the subjects. The results revealed that: If the only prediction was whether the pubertal growth peak in height has been passed (group B), the precision of the method was rather high (approximately 90%). However, if the age of body height peak was to be predicted, the method accuracy was lower (approximately 55%). No significant difference existed between the 1- and 2-year prediction intervals. The study suggests that the somatic maturity stage may be predicted rather accurately by analyzing frontal sinus development on pre-existing lateral head films.