ABSTRACT
The hand with its numerous secondary centers in phalanges and metacarpals and the wrist with its tightly packed primary centers are useful for the purpose of recording progress of skeletal maturation and in identification. This study aimed to establish both a chronological sequence of postnatal skeletal maturation in the Egyptian children and the intersexual differences. In this study, 156 radiographic plates of the hand and wrist in posteroanterior projection of the Egyptian children between 1-13 years of age. All cases were free from any pathological conditions that could alter the normal skeletal development. The ossification centers studied in each case, corresponded to the distal epiphysis of ulna and radius, the campus, the metacarpals and the phalanges. It was found that there was a significant differences in mean [Ba] between girls and boys at 9 and 11 years where girls showed significantly higher mean [Ba] than boys. The difference between [Ba] and [Ca] was a negative value in more males than females. A detailed and ordered study of ossification center of each bone of the hand and wrist was made and the intersexual differences were demonstrated. The [Ba] and [Ca] was related statistically and the results was represented graphically. A high statistical correlation between the two variables was found. Standards representing the length of metacarpal bones and phalanges were obtained. Girls have significantly longer second metacarpal bone than boys in all age groups except at 1 and 9 years of age. Males have significally higher mean total diameter of second metacarpal than females in all age groups from 1 to 10 years except at the age of 5 years