Maturation Disparity between Hand-Wrist Bones in a Chinese Sample of Normal Children: An Analysis Based on Automatic BoneXpert and Manual Greulich and Pyle Atlas Assessment

OBJECTIVE: To assess the maturation disparity of hand-wrist bones using the BoneXpert system and Greulich and Pyle (GP) atlas in a sample of normal children from China. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our study included 229 boys and 168 girls aged 2-14 years. The bones in the hand and wrist were divided into five groups: distal radius and ulna, metacarpals, proximal phalanges, middle phalanges and distal phalanges. Bone age (BA) was assessed separately using the automatic BoneXpert and GP atlas by two raters. Differences in the BA between the most advanced and retarded individual bones and bone groups were analyzed. RESULTS: In 75.8% of children assessed with the BoneXpert and 59.4% of children assessed with the GP atlas, the BA difference between the most advanced and most retarded individual bones exceeded 2.0 years. The BA mean differences between the most advanced and most retarded individual bones were 2.58 and 2.25 years for the BoneXpert and GP atlas methods, respectively. Furthermore, for both methods, the middle phalanges were the most advanced group. The most retarded group was metacarpals for BoneXpert, while metacarpals and the distal radius and ulna were the most retarded groups according to the GP atlas. Overall, the BAs of the proximal and distal phalanges were closer to the chronological ages than those of the other bone groups. CONCLUSION: Obvious and regular maturation disparities are common in normal children. Overall, the BAs of the proximal and distal phalanges are more useful for BA estimation than those of the other bone groups.

Applicability study of the automatic bone age assessment of BoneXpert software in children and adolescent of China (Shanghai) / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

Objective To explore the application of the automatic bone age assessment of BoneXpert software in Children and adolescent of China (Shanghai).Methods Left hand and wrist radiographs of 434 cases of children from trauma (264 boys and 170 girls) were obtained from Jan.2010 to Dec.2013.Bone age was assessed by BoneXpert software and 40 radiographs were randomly chosen and re-evaluated after a week.Results Seven images were rejected by BoneXpert,so the efficiency of the software was 98.4％ and it takes only 14.5 s for every image.Sample assessments by two times are exactly the same.As to BoneXpert software,there were statistical differences between bone age and chronological age in 8 groups:7,8,9,11 years old boys and 2,3,9,11 years old girls(P ＜ 0.05) out of 26 groups,and the average difference was about 1 s.The following modifications suggested that 0.57,0.79,0.93,-0.38 and-0.22,0.30,0.37,0.59 years could be added respectively for the groups of boys aged 7,8,9,11 and girls aged 2,3,9,11 years old according to their average differences between the bone age and the chronological age.Conclusions The BoneXpert method for automated determination of skeletal maturity which evaluates bone age objectively and quickly can be applied clinically after slight adjustment in some age groups.BoneXpert software is 100 percent automatic and could eliminate the subjective evaluation inaccuracy.