Correlation of Serum Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 and Hand Wrist Radiographs as Skeletal Maturity Indicators: An ex-vivo Study

Abstract

Introduction: Conventional Hand and Wrist radiographs, have certain drawbacks of exposing orthodontic patients to unnecessary radiation hazards and subjectivity to errors. Serum insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels have been reported to increase until the pubertal peak in literature. The present study aims to assess the relationship between serum IGF-1 and skeletal maturity indicators Materials and Methods: Lateral cephalograms of 60 patients were assigned SMI stage according to Fishman’s classification system. The serum IGF-1 levels of the patients were also evaluated. Correlation between the serum IGF-1 levels, age of the patient, and their SMI stage was analyzed. Results: Pearson's coefficient of correlation revealed a non-significant weak positive correlation (p=0.69; >0.05) between age and IGF-1 levels, and a non-significant weak negative correlation (p =0.52; >0.05) between SMI stages and IGF-1 levels. Results of the ANOVA test indicated that there was no significant difference between mean IGF-1 levels across the different age groups and eleven SMI groups. However, there was a significant difference noted in the mean IGF-1 levels and the restructured SMI categories and groups. Conclusion: The moderate correlation between age and serum IGF-1 fluctuations during puberty underscores the hormone's pivotal role in adolescent growth. This positions serum IGF-1 as a potentially specific and reliable marker for assessing mandibular growth modifications, offering a radiation-free alternative to conventional radiographic methods.