RESUMO
In the present work, 765 X-ray photographs for males and 450 for females from a sample of clinically healthy Egyptian population in the east of Delta, in the age range of 9-25 years, were examined for epiphyseal union in the regions of the elbow, wrist, hand, knee, ankle, and foot. The epiphysis was considered united if there was complete obliteration of the diaphyseo-epiphyseal space, and non- united if there was no or partial obliteration of diaphyseo- epiphyseal space. The results showed that epiphyseal union occurs over a range of 4-6 years in males and 4-5 years in females, and the union was 1-2 years earlier in females than in males. Comparison of results of the present study with results of other studies performed earlier or in other localities demonstrated the existence of differences in age timing and sequence of union of the studied epiphyses. The differences were more marked on comparing the present study with a study performed on Bengalis than with a study performed on Caucasians. This raises the importance of developing and updating the standards of ages of epiphyseal union for each locality to achieve more accuracy of age estimation by examining bone epiphyses. Examining more than one epiphysis for age estimation is also recommended