What is bone age and what is the significance of testing bone age for children? (1) What is bone age and its standard? Bone age is an abbreviation of skeletal age, which is a developmental age obtained by comparing the actual developmental level of a child’s bones with the standard developmental level. Bone age represents to a large extent the real developmental level of a child, so it is more accurate to use bone age to determine the maturity of the human body than the actual age. In clinical practice, the bone maturity of an individual is compared with the standardized atlas, and when the bone maturity is equivalent to the standardized atlas of a certain age, that age is the bone age, which is an indicator for determining bone maturity. (2) Why do doctors always measure bone age in children? The changes in human bone development are basically similar, and the development process of each bone has continuity and stages. Bones at different stages have different morphological characteristics. Therefore, bone age assessment can more accurately reflect the level of growth and development and the degree of maturity of an individual. It can not only determine the biological age of the child, but also through the bone age early understanding of the child’s growth potential and the trend of sexual maturity: through the bone age can also predict the child’s adult height, the determination of the bone age is also a great help in the diagnosis of some pediatric endocrine diseases. Meanwhile, it is a great guidance for the treatment of patients with short stature. (3) Why can bone age reflect the height potential of children? Bone age, or bone age for short, is determined by the degree of calcification of a child’s bones. Because bone age can more accurately reflect the developmental level of a person at all ages from birth to full maturity, it is most widely used at all developmental ages. Bone age is especially important in the analysis and diagnosis of endocrine diseases, developmental disorders, nutritional disorders, hereditary diseases and metabolic diseases. The use of bone age to infer the development of the body to reflect the state of growth and development, and help to understand the potential of children’s height development. Example: A boy is 12 years old but his bone age is 13 years old, which indicates that although the boy is only 12 years old, his development is faster and his physical development has reached the level of a 13-year-old boy. Since the age of maturity of the wrist bone in Chinese men is about 18.4 years, under normal circumstances, the boy’s growth and development will continue for no more than 5.4 years. If his bone age is 11 years old, it means that his development is slower and only develops to the level of a normal child at the age of 11. Therefore, under normal circumstances, he still has 7.4 years of development time left and it can be assumed that this girl has a greater potential for growth in height. (4) What is the relationship between bone age and age and maturity? The relationship between bone age and actual age can be shown by the bone age difference. That is, the difference between the actual age and bone age, but also for the difference between the two specific years. A positive difference between actual age and bone age means that the bone age is behind the age; a negative difference means that the bone age is ahead of the age. Usually, ±2 years is the normal range of bone age difference, of which a bone age difference of ±1 year is considered normal. When the rate of increase of bone age is greater than the rate of growth of height, the epiphysis heals earlier, the growth period is shortened, and finally the adult height is lowered. (5) When do adolescents usually close their epiphyses? Generally, girls are 16 or 17 years old and boys are 18 or 19 years old. Girls grow fastest during puberty between the ages of 11 and 15, and boys grow fastest between the ages of 12 and 16. Adolescence is the fastest time of the year, and spring is the fastest time of the year. Special reminder to parents, this age group of adolescents: hair check or blood test, test whether the lack of trace elements calcium, zinc, iron …… attention to a variety of supplemental nutrition. C, drink milk before going to bed. (6) If my child’s bone age has closed can there be any way to open it again? First of all, to make clear whether you have been in the regular hospital specialists for consultation and diagnosis, if the doctor’s diagnosis, the child’s bone age is really closed, then it can be said that there is no way to make the closed bone age open again, and I hope that you do not believe in the market false advertising in order to avoid being fooled to avoid unnecessary losses.