How to use bone age to determine human growth?

  People have ages, and the organs of the body such as skin and blood vessels also have their own ages. Among them, bone age is an important factor to determine the growth potential of human body.  In the process of human height increase, the key role is played by the growth and development of bones, among which the growth of thigh bone and vertebrae plays a decisive role in height. The thigh bone is the long bone, and the long bone is divided into the backbone and the epiphysis, between which there is epiphyseal cartilage, and the growth of human is the continuous process of value-added differentiation of epiphyseal cartilage. After this stage, the diaphysis and the epiphysis become one, the bones are completely fused, and the person will not grow any taller. The age of the person being examined can be estimated from the development of the bones on the x-ray film. The age of the bones can be compared with the actual age of the person being examined to determine whether the bones are developing too early or too late, and is useful for diagnosing diseases that affect normal bone development and evaluating growth potential and the effectiveness of treatment.  The wrist of a normal person consists of 8 small bones, plus the distal ends of the two long bones of the forearm adjacent to it, making a total of 10 bones. As the child ages, the bones gradually ossify in a certain order, i.e., the shadows are seen on the X-ray, which is called the ossification center.  Bone age is a more accurate reflection of the maturity of the body than the actual age. In general, the bone age and the actual age are basically the same, if the bone development is too fast, the bone age will be greater than the actual age, called bone age overage. On the contrary, if the bone development is too slow, the bone age will lag behind the actual age, which is called lagging bone age. Children and adolescents are in the process of growth and development, and most of the skeletal development has not yet matured, the bone age ahead or behind can assess the size of their growth potential. Therefore, some children and adolescents with short stature can have their growth potential determined by bone age, and their future adult height can be predicted based on their actual age and bone age.