ESPE Abstracts

Purpose: The Tanner-Whitehouse (TW) system is the method of choice for skeletal maturity assessment in both clinical practice and auxological research (Tanner et al. 1983), and it has been used to estimate skeletal maturity in groups of children from all over the world. This study aimed on analyzing the characteristic of the RUS maturity of Korea children by evaluating RUS maturity of Korea children using the TW3 method, compared with children in China and Japan.

Methods: Left hand including wrist radiographs of normal children (643 boys and 837 girls) who had visited several local clinics and University Hospital were obtained in five cities. Their RUS maturity was estimated using the TW3 method and 50th percentiles of the RUS scores classified by sex and age were compared with TW3 standards and study results of Beijing in China and Tokyo in Japan.

Result: The RUS maturity of Korea children was similar to the TW3 standard until the age of 12 years in boys and 9 years in girls. The age of full maturity was 16-year-old in boys and 15-year-old in girls.

Conclusion: The RUS maturity of Korea children showed a sharp increase after the age of 12 years in boys and 9 years in girls, compared with the TW3 standard. RUS maturity of Korea children was more similar to that of Beijing (China) children than that of Tokyo (Japan) children.