The Value of Roentgen Rays in the Diagnosis of Endocrine Diseases

Abstract

In the present-day diagnosis of endocrine disorders, careful attention is given to the patient's family, prenatal, postnatal, and present history, laboratory and biochemical studies are made, and anthropometry is employed. Roentgen-ray examination is the most useful aid in diagnosis, since skeletal growth and development constitute one of the basic evidences of endocrine status in children as well as in adults. The thyroid and pituitary are the glands principally concerned. The formation, growth, and alignment of bones take place with regularity, beginning in the fetal state and continuing through different epochs after birth. Departure from the normal on the part of the ossifying centers or the epiphyses denotes a disturbance of one or more of the endocrine glands. Roentgen examination of the bony framework and structure in infants and children is therefore of the utmost importance; it is, in fact, a necessity, as it may be the only method of diagnosing endocrine disease. Engelbach, in his Endocrine Medi...