ABSTRACT
Background: Chronological age of the child is a poor indicator of his/her maturity status especially during adolescence. Skeletal age derived from hand and wrist is well established as a method of estimating physical maturity and particularly valuable at about time of puberty when the greatest number of variations in maturation are found among children of same chronological age. Methods: The investigation was carried out cross- sectionally on the menstruating 200 bania girls from Punjab. Skeletal maturity was assessed by Tanner-Whitehouse-2 method (20 bone score) by taking hand wrist radiographs of left hand as advocated by Tanner. Results: The mean skeletal age is 11.625± .2252 at mean chronological age of 11.181± .1337 (20B) and mean skeletal age is 12.092± .8036 at mean chronological age of 12.013± .2736. Delay is seen in skeletal age than chronological age at 13 and 14 years. The differences between skeletal ages and chronological ages are statistically significant at p < .05 at 11 years and 13 years. Discussion: Bania girls showed advancement of skeletal age over chronological age at 11 and 12 years while Chinese girls showed advanced skeletal age at 12 and 13 years and well off Chandigarh girls showed advanced skeletal age at 12 years of age. Conclusion: The ages at which skeletal age preceded the chronological age occurred much earlier in bania girls than well off Chandigarh girls and Chinese girls. As all ratings were done by the first author with higher reliability and without information on age. All these factors suggest that sample is representative of bania girls from Punjab and the observations on the skeletal maturation are reliable.
ABSTRACT
Background: The median artery is a transitory vessel that represents the arterial axis of the forearm during early embryonic life. When present, it appears mainly as two types: antebrachial and palmar. Context and purpose of the study: In the present study the objective was to investigate the occurrence and fate of palmar type of median artery. The study was conducted on 40 cadaveric upper extremities dissected in the department of Anatomy, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot, India. Results: In the present study, persistent median artery (palmar type) was seen in 2.5% of the limbs dissected. It was originating from the posterior aspect of the ulnar artery approximately 3.2 cm distal to the elbow joint. It pierced the median nerve (traversing from its medial to its lateral aspect) in the proximal third of the forearm. The artery then travelled lateral to the median nerve in rest of the forearm. Subsequently, it accompanied the median nerve into the palm passing deep to the flexor retinaculum. Finally, the artery terminated by completing the superficial palmar arch. In addition to the above described variant blood vessel, we also observed high division of median nerve into its medial and lateral branches. Clinical implications: When median artery is patent and reaches the hand, it forms the only arterial supply to the median nerve and damage to this artery could have serious effects. The aim of our study was to provide additional information about anomalous palmar type of median artery and its clinical implications.
ABSTRACT
A Medicolegal case of embryo/foetus was received from the department of forensic medicine for the assessment of age of the foetus. The report for the assessment of age was prepared on the basis of gross appearance, radiological and histological examinations. On radiological examination of the limb tissue, the age of the foetus /embryo was approximately 3 months. The ossification centres for metatarsal bones were visible which appear at the 10th week of intrauterine life. Also on USG the femur length was found to be 10 mm which also suggests the age to be around 3 months. The smooth junction between the epidermis and dermis suggests age of the embryo/foetus to be less than 3 months because the epidermal ridges and dermal papillae become prominent at the end of 3rd month. From the basal layer of epidermis down growths were seen which were suggestive of growth of hair follicles. Hair follicles become prominent by the 10th week of intra uterine life which again reveals that the age of foetus is around end of 3rd month. From the observations, the age of the foetus was found to be more than 2 and half months but less than 3 months i.e. between 10-12 weeks.