Type:
Educational Exhibit
Keywords:
Endocrine disorders, Education and training, Normal variants, Ultrasound, MR, Digital radiography, Paediatric, Musculoskeletal bone, Anatomy
Authors:
P. M. Dautt Medina, A. J. Zavala, D. Solis Cano, G. A. Montejo Ruiz, N. B. Guzman Martinez; Mexico City/MX
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-3728
Background
Age can be defined in several ways: bone age,
morphological age,
age at development of secondary sexual characteristics,
age at menarche and dental age.
These parameters have all been described as means to define physiological age,
during pediatric age there are several factors that have an impact on the development and proper growth of a child,
therefore,
chronological age is not necessarily indicative of the degree of biological maturation.
So far,
the only accepted indicator of maturation,
valid from birth to maturity,
is bone age.
Although the maturity of the bones examined on the XRay only expresses part of the maturation process,
both pediatricians and endocrinologists agree in admitting that the estimate of bone age approximates and reflects biological age of the individual.