RESUMEN
PURPOSE: Age determination based on bone maturate evaluation is routinely used in forensic science and anthropology. The aim of this study was to purpose a quantitative method of age determination on the second metacarpal in a population of children and adolescents by measurements of the epiphyso-metaphysal ratio (REM) (epiphysal diameter divided by metaphysal diameter) and the cortical index (IC). MATERIAL: and methods. We evaluated the REM and the IC on 417 hand radiographs of 2 from aged 20-year-old children. RESULTS: The correlation between REM and age for males (R2=0.62; p<0.001) and females (R2=0.68; p<0.001) was a good and significant. The correlation between IC and age for males (R2=0.34; p<0.001) and females (R2=0.30; p<0.001) was also significant but poor. CONCLUSION: Measurement of IC should not be used for age assessment. Measurement of REM is simple, reproducible and poor X-ray exposing technique. It should be very useful for age determination.