The methods of skeletal age assessment

Česká verzia

Authors: D. Zemková
Authors place of work: Dětská klinika, 2. LF UK a FN v Motole, Praha
Published in the journal: Prakt Gyn 2011; 15(1): 28-32
Category: Review Article

Summary

This review article is concerned with the issues of measurement of biological and bone age, interferences between sexual and bone maturation and their clinical implications. There are two basic methods of measurement. The first group of methods is based on inspection by bone atlas – patient’s radiogram is compared to a typical picture for the specific age and sex. Scoring methods are considered to be more accurate; respective bones are evaluated separately, assigned a numerical index and the sum of indexes describes bone maturation. We prefer the third modification (TW3) of Tanner and Whitehouse method that includes current updated European standards. At the beginning of puberty, the correlation between sexual and bone maturation is weak but, with maturation, these processes become synchronised, especially under the influence of estrogens.

Key words:
bone age – biological age – estrogens – puberty

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