Description of the stages of bone maturation by Bjork´s carpal radiography of children and adolescents in two groups of different ethnic ancestry

Abstract

Objective: This study described the stages of bone maturation according to Bjork´s method through carpal radiography in children aged 8-15 year-old belonging to the indigenous population Ticuna (Amazonas) and the black population of Puerto Tejada (Cauca).
 Materials and methods: 72 children Ticuna indigenous community, located in Leticia (Amazonas) and 80 children of African descent in the municipality Puerto Tejada (Cauca) were studied. Children tested aged8 to 15 year-old. Children were transferred to a specialized radiology center where carpal radiographs of both hands were taken. The height and weight measurements were obtained by using a digital scale and Conair ® brand plastic tape, which was placed on the wall. For analysis of bone maturation, was used the method of Björk.
 Results: It was observed that there is a significant relationship between bone development and sex (p=0.001), ie, that women are more likely to have more advanced stages of bone maturation that men. When bony maturation stages according to ethnic groups were related, they find that people of African descent have a higher bone development that indigenous. It was evidenced that children at older ages presented higher bone maturation stages.
 Conclusion: It was determined that the African descent was significantly related to bone development (p=0.005), as compared to children of Amerindian descent. In addition, it was determined that thereis a relation between bone developmentand women (p=0.001) and age groups (p=0.000). In general, when comparing these two populations was found that the ancestry, age and gender are factors that affect bone development of children and should be taken into account when starting any treatment.
 Key words: Carpogram, ethnic descent, indigenous, African bone maturation, Bjork radiographic method/ descent.