Assessing skeletal maturity in a UK modern female population

Abstract

Objective: The study aimed to examine the accuracy of Greulich and Pyle (GP) methodology for estimating age in a female UK sample since there is a dearth of studies testing its applicability in the UK. Materials and methods: Radiographs from the left wrist and hand belonging to 257 female individuals from two different hospitals from the UK ranging from 10 to 17 years old were analysed. Correlation was performed between skeletal age (SA) and chronological age (CA) values as well as mean comparisons. In addition, the mean difference (MD) and mean absolute difference (MAD) between these two parameters were also examined to study inaccuracy values. Results: A strong correlation was found between SA and CA (r = 0.887; p < 0.001). The MD between SA and CA is positive (0.51 ± 12.43 months), meaning that SA based on Greulich and Pyle atlas overestimates CA in general terms (minimum: − 40.17 months; maximum: 31.13 months). In the case of MAD, the mean value is 9.96 ± 7.44 months (minimum: 0.07 months; maximum: 40.17 months). In addition, no significant differences were found between SA and CA either in the global sample or in most of the age cohorts, with two exceptions: 14-year-olds, where mean SA was significantly higher than CA, and 16-year-olds, where the opposite results were observed. Conclusion: These results suggest that the GP atlas can be applied to the present female UK population, although caution must be taken when applied to estimating the age of post-pubertal UK girls