Auxologia ortopedica

For decades, the determination of bone maturity has relied on a visual evaluation of skeletal development in the hand and wrist, most commonly using the Greulich and Pyle atlas. The Gilsanz and Ratib digital atlas takes advantage of the advent of digital imaging and provides a more effective and objective approach to skeletal maturity assessment. This atlas integrates the key morphological features of ossification in the bones of the hand and wrist and provides idealized, sex- and age-specific images of skeletal development. This computer-generated set of images should serve as a reasonable alternative to the reference books currently available.

The determination of skeletal maturity (bone age) has an important place in the practice of paediatrics, particularly in relation to endocrinological problems and growth disorders. It is frequently used in diagnosis (eg short children with growth delay) and in monitoring treatment in conditions such as hypothyroidism and congenital adrenal hyperplasia. This is a comprehensive and practical guide to assessing skeletal maturity and predicting adult height in children. It takes the reader through the main scoring systems and illustrates, by way of radiographs, the main stages of bone maturity in both sexes. A free CD-Rom containing a growth height prediction programme is included so that predictions of growth height can be made automatically for each patient. Data can be also stored for comparison as the patient grows.