The CHN radiographic atlas method for assessing skeletal age of hand and wrist in 1397 children and result analysis / 中华放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe the difference between skeletal age of hand and wrist and chronological age and explore the reliability of CHN radiographic atlas method to assess the skeletal age of hand and wrist in children and adolescent.Methods Total 1397 healthy children (666 boys,731 girls;age range,1.0-18.0 years old) with hand and wrist injury from 2007 to 2011 were selected.Forty groups (n =20 for boys and girls,respectively) were classified according to CHN radiographic atlas method.The radiographs of hand and wrist were assessed by CHN radiographic atlas method,the relations between skeletal age and chronological age were investigated by using Wilcoxon signed ranks test.Results According to the CHN radiographic atlas method,the difference in 1.0 to 3.9 years old,7.0 to 7.9 years old and 9.0 to 15.9 years old boy groups between skeletal age and the chronological age had statistical significance (P ＜0.05) ; the difference in 1.0 to 2.9 years old,8.0 to 11.9 years old,12.6 to 14.9 years old,and 17.0 to 18.0 years old girl groups between skeletal age and the chronological age had statistical significance (P ＜ 0.05).Besides,these skeletal age was higher than the chronological age.Conclusions Skeletal age assessed by the CHN radiographic atlas method in a majority of age groups was higher than chronological age.It should be cautious to estimate the contemporary Chinese children skeletal age of hand and wrist when using the CHN radiographic atlas method.