Abstract
Bone age represents a common index utilized in pediatric radiology and endocrinology departments worldwide for the definition of skeletal maturity for medical and non-medical purpose. It is defined by the age expressed in years that corresponds to the level of maturation of bones. Although several bones have been studied to better define bone age, the hand and wrist X-rays are the most used images. In fact, the images obtained by hand and wrist X-ray reflect the maturity of different types of bones of the skeletal segment evaluated. This information, associated to the characterization of the shape and changes of bone components configuration, represent an important factor of the biological maturation process of a subject. Bone age may be affected by several factors, including gender, nutrition, as well as metabolic, genetic, and social factors and either acute and chronic pathologies especially hormone alteration. As well several differences can be characterized according to the numerous standardized methods developed over the past decades. Therefore, the complete characterization of the main methods and procedure available and particularly of all their advantages and disadvantages need to be known in order to properly utilized this information for all its medical and non-medical main fields of application.
Highlights
Evaluation of skeletal maturity is a common procedure frequently performed in clinical practice
Biological maturity is defined by several parameters, including the characterization of skeletal maturity, sexual maturity, dental elements eruption, menarche, spermarche, deepening of the voice, growth spurt, and the achievement of 95% of the adult height [1,2,3]
Chronological age differs from bone age, so the two indexes need to be distinguished: chronological age is defined as the age in years between birth and the evaluation of a subject; bone age is defined by the age expressed in years that corresponds to the level of maturation of bones
Summary
Evaluation of skeletal maturity is a common procedure frequently performed in clinical practice. Biological maturity is defined by several parameters, including the characterization of skeletal maturity, sexual maturity, dental elements eruption, menarche, spermarche, deepening of the voice, growth spurt, and the achievement of 95% of the adult height [1,2,3] Many of these parameters, and growth spurt and menarche, correlate better with bone age compared to chronological age [4]. Chronological age differs from bone age, so the two indexes need to be distinguished: chronological age is defined as the age in years between birth and the evaluation of a subject; bone age is defined by the age expressed in years that corresponds to the level of maturation of bones This determination is based on the presence of particular centers of bone formation as well as the dimension and structure of the bones [3, 5,6,7,8]. Bone age may be affected by several factors, including gender, nutrition, as well as metabolic, genetic, and social factors and either acute or chronic diseases, including endocrine dysfunction [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
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