[Value of radiographic evaluation of the second metacarpal in the determination of bone age].
OBJECTIVE
Age determination based on bone maturate evaluation is routinely used in forensic science and anthropology. The aim of this study was to purpose a quantitative method of age determination on the second metacarpal in a population of children and adolescents by measurements of the epiphyso-metaphysal ratio (REM) (epiphysal diameter divided by metaphysal diameter) and the cortical index (IC).


METHODS
and methods. We evaluated the REM and the IC on 417 hand radiographs of 2 from aged 20-year-old children.


RESULTS
The correlation between REM and age for males (R2=0.62; p<0.001) and females (R2=0.68; p<0.001) was a good and significant. The correlation between IC and age for males (R2=0.34; p<0.001) and females (R2=0.30; p<0.001) was also significant but poor.


CONCLUSIONS
Measurement of IC should not be used for age assessment. Measurement of REM is simple, reproducible and poor X-ray exposing technique. It should be very useful for age determination.
Faruch Bilfeld
M
M
Service de Médecine Légale, CHU Toulouse-Rangueil, 1, avenue du Professeur Jean Poulhès, 31059 Toulouse Cedex 9, France. mariefaruch@hotmail.com
Dedouit
F
F
Soumah
M
M
Cartegnie
S
S
Joffre
F
F
Rousseau
H
H
Rougé
D
D
Telmon
N
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000365:Age Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D050279:Metacarpal Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult