Provider: Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic TY - JOUR JO - Anthropologie (Brno) TI - Methods of Skeletal Maturity Assessment: Some Clinical Aspects AU - Kuchyňková I AU - Krásničanová H Y1 - 2004 VL - 42 IS - 2 PB - Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic SN - 0323-1119 SP - 115 EP - 119 KW - Bone age KW - Skeletal maturity KW - TW2 method KW - TW3 method KW - GP method N2 - N2 - Bone age (BA) has an important place in the paediatric practice. The value of BA is the chronological age at which the 50th centile child has the maturity score of the given child. The skeletal maturity score (SMS) represents the fundamental value for bone maturity assessment. SMS is independent on influences such as secular growth changes, socio-economic class and ethnic group in contrast to the bone age. The methodological base of skeletal maturity assessment is a quantitative description of the radiograph of the left hand and distal part of the forearm. In contemporary clinical practice there are three most exact methods: GP (Greulich, Pyle 1959), TW2 (Tanner et al. 1975) and TW3 (Tanner et al. 2001). Based on our own findings and long-term clinical experience, we recommend for common practice the GP method everywhere accurate evaluation is not required (ossification rate assessment or treatment control). For quite exact evaluation, that means especially for special clinical needs, the TW3 method should be used (scoring of multiple parameters gives results accurate to tenths of year). The mean difference between GP and TW3 is 0.1-0.2 years. The TW2 method may be considered as already obsolete - the difference between results of TW2 and TW3 methods is 1 year. It is given by the construction of the two methods: TW2 reference population came from the 1960s, TW3 method contains new standards of ossification of European and Euroamerican subpopulations, accelerated in comparison with TW2. ER -