Radiologic Prevalence and Features of Metacarpal Pseudoepiphysis on Normal Korean Children / 대한정형외과학회잡지

PURPOSE: Pseudoepiphysis originates from the secondary ossification center of the non-ossification end during the normal pediatric growth process. It is not uncommonly found in the course of metacarpal and metatarsal ossification. We investigated the radiologic prevalence and features of pseudoepiphysis in normal Korean children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sex and age distribution following radiologic prevalence as well as the features of metacarpal pseudoepiphysis of 2,320 Korean children aged below 15 years of age and younger who underwent hand radiography between January 2009 and February 2016 were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 304 out of 2,320 patients had pseudoepiphysis on metacarpal bone, which is a prevalence of 13.1%. Male showed higher prevalence (16.6% for male and 10.5% for female). The peak age was 11 years for boys and 5 years for girls. The first metacarpal bone was most prevalent, with 9.6% of the total population, followed by the second metacarpal bone (5.2%) and fifth metacarpal bone (2.5%). The prevalence of single pseudoepiphysis was 9.4%, and that of multiple pseudoepiphysis was 3.7%. The prevalence of incomplete pseudoepiphysis was 8.9% and was higher than complete pseudoepiphysis (5.6%). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of metacarpal pseudoepiphysis in normal Korean children was 13.1%. It is necessary to be aware of the radiologic features and distributions of pseudoepiphysis to avoid misinterpretation as a bone disease or traumatic fracture in pediatric patients.

The Sequential Development of Elbow-Ossification Centers in Children / 대한정형외과학회잡지

PURPOSE: We aimed to study the cross-sectional ossification pattern of the elbow, the sequence, and the time in Korean children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The radiographs of the elbow joint of 1418 children from newborn to age of 16 years taken from January 1993 to February 1999 were reviewed. The presence of 6 secondary ossification centers were recorded with all-or-none approach, and sex and chronologic age were also recorded. We took the point of 50% positive ossification as the reference mean for comparison, and found the point by cubic spline method. X2 test was done to compare the ossification time between boys and girls and injured elbow against normal elbow. RESULTS: The boys had following sequential development of ossification centers; capitulum, radial head, medial epicondyle, olecranon, trochlea, lateral epicondyle at age of 1, 6.7, 7.3, 10.8, 11.2, and 13 years, respectively; and the girls, capitulum, medial epicondyle, radial head, olecranon, trochlea, lateral epicondyle, at age of 1, 4.3, 4.3, 9.5, 9.5, and 10 years, respectively. Appearance of ossification centers except capitulum was delayed approximately for 2 years in boys as compared with that in girls (p0.05) . SUMMARY: The authors reported the patterns for the development of secondary ossification centers of Korean children using the cross-sectional study.