How to determine bone age?

Bone age testing is actually testing the age of bone development. Generally, by testing bone age, we can understand the level and degree of bone development, and can also predict the child's growth and development potential. Generally, the bone age of girls is best at 12-13 years old and that of boys is at 14-15 years old. At this time, the child's height is basically determined. Therefore, parents must observe the child's growth time and do bone age assessment for their children as early as possible.

Methods for determining bone age include simple counting method, atlas method, scoring method and computer bone age scoring system. The most commonly used are GP atlas method and TW2 (TW3) scoring method; predicting adult height includes BP method, RWT method, TW2 method, etc.

Children's growth and development can be evaluated by two "ages", one is the life age (calendar age) we commonly use, and the other is bone age.

What is bone age? Simply put, bone age is the age of your bones. It is a skeletal development age obtained by comparing the actual skeletal development level of children with the standard development level.

What is the significance of measuring bone age?

Bone age reflects the actual level of bone development in children. Therefore, using bone age to judge the maturity of human bones is more accurate than life age. Measuring bone age has the following significance:

1. The difference between bone age and life age can indirectly understand the child's growth potential

① Normal children: The difference between bone age and life age is generally within 1 year. For example: Xiao Ming is 9 years old. His height is at the average level of children of the same age and gender (135.4cm). His bone age is 8.5 years old, which is slightly younger than his living age. This indicates that Xiao Ming has the potential to exceed the average height of children of the same age. Another example: Xiaohong is 9 years old. Her height is also at the average level of children of the same age and gender (134.1cm). Her bone age is 9.5 years old, which is slightly larger than her living age. Therefore, the chance that Xiaohong's height will exceed the average level of girls of the same age is small. The above two examples are only general conditions. Clinical judgment of bone age and height requires longitudinal observation and evaluation, because for some children, especially adolescents, their bone age may grow rapidly first, and their height may grow rapidly later, resulting in a certain time difference.

② Children with early bone maturity: Their bone age is 1 to 2 years or more older than their life age. Although these children are taller than the average level of children of the same age and gender, because their bone age is old and the rate of bone age increase is greater than the rate of height increase, their epiphysis will close prematurely, their growth potential is lost, and their total height as an adult will not be high.

③Children with late bone maturity: There is a certain correlation between bone development and sexual development. Because of late development (his parents also had this problem when they were young), his height before puberty is often lower than that of children of the same age (but generally not lower than P3, that is, it does not meet the standard for dwarfism), but his bone age is significantly behind that of children of the same age (1 to 2 years behind), so relatively speaking, he has more growth potential and room for growth. The growth period is longer, and the height increases rapidly during puberty, so his lifetime height will not be too short.

2. Bone age determination is very helpful for the diagnosis of some pediatric endocrine diseases

For example, children with congenital hypothyroidism and complete growth hormone deficiency generally have a bone age that is more than 2 years younger than their chronological age. In children with central precocious puberty and congenital adrenal hyperplasia, the bone age is generally more than 2 years older than their chronological age. Determination of bone age helps in the diagnosis of these diseases.

three:

Bone age can be used to understand the child's sexual development and sexual maturity trends;

Bone age can be used to predict a child's adult height (with limited accuracy in younger children);

Longitudinal monitoring of bone age has great guiding significance for the treatment of some short children.