Table 3.
Criteria for exclusion after initial review
| Reason for exclusion | PubMed (n = 36) | ScienceDirect (n = 153) | SciELO (n = 17) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exclusive use of VMI or CMI | 6 | 12 | 2 | 20 |
| Use of other VMI methods | 5 | 5 | 3 | 13 |
| Use of dental methods | 1 | 9 | 1 | 11 |
| Inadequate samples (syndromes, metabolic diseases) | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Literature and/or systematic reviews | 1 | 8 | 0 | 9 |
| Articles in Chinese or French | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Absence of correlation between VMI and CMI | 4 | 3 | 2 | 9 |
| Use of CT | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Letters from the editor, opinion articles, abstracts for conferences | 0 | 30 | 0 | 30 |
| Other (glossary, indexes, appendices, bibliographies, responses to the authors, book chapters, handbooks) | 0 | 70 | 6 | 76 |
| Total exclusions | 20 | 144 | 14 | 178 |
| Articles included | 16 | 9 | 3 | 28 |
CMI, hand–wrist maturation index; VMI, vertebral maturation index.