title: Prediction of adult height by Tanner-Whitehouse method in young Caucasian male athletes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although the accuracy of final height prediction using skeletal age development has been confirmed in many studies for children treated for congenital primary hypothyroidism, short normal children, constitutionally tall children, no studies compared the predicted adult height at young age with final stature in athletic population.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In this study, the intention was to investigate to what extent the Tanner-Whitehouse (TW) method is adequate for prediction of final stature in young Caucasian male athletes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective observational study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Plain radiographs of the left hand and wrist were obtained from 477 athletic children (ranging in age from 8.0 to 17.9 years) who came to the outpatient clinic between 2000 and 2011 for adult height estimation, with no orthopedic trauma suspected. Adult height was estimated using bone age rates according to TW method. Height was measured both at baseline and follow-up (at the age of 19 years).
  
  
  RESULTS
  No significant difference was found between the estimated adult height (184.9 ± 9.7 cm) and final stature (185.6 ± 9.6 cm) [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.61-3.01, P = 0.55]. The relationship between estimated and final adult height was high (r = 0.96). Bland-Altman analysis confirmed that the 95% of differences between estimated adult height and final stature lie between limits of agreement (mean ± 2 SD) (-5.84 and 4.52 cm).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  TW method is an accurate method of predicting adult height in male normal-growing athletic boys.
authors.affiliation: Center for Health, Exercise and Sport Sciences, Stari DIF, Belgrade, Serbia. sergej@panet.rs
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Ostojic
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000365:Age Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*; D001827:Body Height / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006128:Growth / Q000502:physiology; D050276:Hand Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013177:Sports / Q000502:physiology*; D014953:Wrist / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging