I’m sure all parents have had their children’s bone age films taken when they take them to the hospital for growth checks. Do you know why we take a bone age film? What exactly is bone age?
What is bone age and what are the criteria for bone age?
Bone age is short for skeletal age, which is a developmental age obtained by comparing the actual development of a child’s bones with the standard developmental level.
Bone age largely represents a child’s true level of development, so it is more accurate to determine the maturity of the body than the actual age.
Why do doctors always determine the bone age of children?
The changes in human skeletal development are basically similar, with each bone developing in a continuous and stage-specific process. Bones at different stages have different morphological characteristics, therefore, bone age assessment can more accurately reflect the level of growth and maturity of an individual.
It not only determines the biological age of a child, but also provides an early understanding of a child’s growth potential and the trend of sexual maturity through bone age. Bone age can also predict the adult height of children, and the determination of bone age is also very helpful in the diagnosis of some pediatric endocrine diseases. It is also a great guide for the treatment of some patients with short stature.
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.
A difference between bone age and life age within ±1 year is considered normal development.
If the difference between bone age and life age is >1 year, it is called early development (referred to as precocious maturity).
If the difference between bone age and life age is <-1 year, it is called backward development (abbreviation: late maturity).
When does the epiphysis of an adolescent usually close?
Generally girls are at 16 or 17 years old and boys are at 18 or 19 years old.
Girls develop fastest at the age of 11-15 during puberty, and boys develop fastest at the age of 12-16.
Puberty is the fastest growing period in a lifetime, and spring is the fastest growing period of the year.
If my child’s epiphysis is closed can there be any way to open it again?
First of all, it is important to clarify whether you have been consulted and diagnosed by a specialist in a regular hospital. If your child’s epiphysis is really closed after the doctor’s diagnosis, there is no way to reopen the closed epiphysis. Do not believe in false advertisements in the market to avoid being deceived and causing unnecessary losses.
Generally speaking, the epiphysis of girls is close to closing at the age of 14 and boys at the age of 16, so there is no chance of growth. Therefore, the earlier the epiphyseal closure is understood and the earlier the intervention is made, the greater the possibility for the patient to grow taller. As long as the treatment is timely, the child can usually reach the genetic height.
Because the body has a catch-up growth mechanism, growth hormone replacement therapy leads to an improvement in the final height of most patients with dwarfism, and treatment is usually stopped when the epiphysis is close to closure. Early detection, early treatment and adherence to systematic treatment are necessary to obtain the best treatment results.
Currently, the world’s most advanced long-acting growth hormone only needs to be injected once a week to achieve the effect of 7 days of short-acting growth hormone, which not only greatly reduces the frequency of injections, but also improves the effectiveness of treatment for children.
Many parents have a “growth hormone phobia”, believing that hormones must have side effects such as fatness, ugliness and endocrine disorders, and some even refuse to receive treatment. In fact, under the guidance of doctors, the chance of adverse reactions is very small.