How accurate is an X-ray of the hand in determining age?
The bone age is determined by data that was compiled over fifty years ago by Greulich and Pyle. Most of the children in the study were Caucasian. In theory, the bone age of a growing child should compare closely with the child’s chronologic age. If there is a wide disparity between bone age and chronologic age, you look for certain conditions to account for the advancement or deceleration. Once a person’s growth plates are fused, the correlation between x-ray findings and chronologic age is obscured. If there are racial differences, I’ll wager that some of it is due to environmental and economic conditions. But not necessarily. African American girls mature earlier than white girls on average, and the bone age would usually be advanced in these situations. Again, nutrition factors play into whether hard manual labor affects bone growth. Repeat trauma might be discernible on the x-ray.
