title: [A computer system for bone age measurement of hand radiographs].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was to development a computer system for assessing bone age which would analyse children's growth level accurately and quickly.
  
  
  METHODS
  It used the standards of estimating skeletal maturity for Chinese (CHN) scoring method to assess the bone age of Chinese children. We applied image enhancement techniques for imprving the quality of the hand-wrist radiographs, while an automated system was developed to implement this method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Users could get a clear and reliable radiograph through image processing, compare each bone of the hand-wrist radiograph with that of the scanned image of the standard radiographs, then generate the stage of bone maturity. The computer would give out individual and total bone score and a value of bone age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This system implemented evaluation of bone age rapidly and accurately, it would help orthodontist to choose the best time of treatment.
authors.affiliation: College of Stomatology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000365:Age Determination by Skeleton; D006225:Hand / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans