[Determination of skeletal age : comparison of the methods of Greulich and Pyle and Tanner and Whitehouse]. / Bestimmung des Skelettalters : Vergleich der Methoden nach Greulich und Pyle sowie Tanner und Whitehouse.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and the time required to determine skeletal age (SA) in healthy children by the methods of Greulich and Pyle (GP) and of Tanner and Whitehouse (TW). Based on these results recommendations for routine clinical practice is to be established. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study a total of 63 children between the ages of 5 and 18 years were included. Each conventional radiographic image of the left hand was assessed under blinded conditions by 5 or 6 examiners and the time needed was recorded. The assessments were repeated after 2 months. RESULTS: The average chronological age was estimated slightly too low by the GP method and clearly too high by TW. The mean deviation between the results of two examiners tended to be higher with the TW method than with GP. Repeated assessments of SA by the same examiner deviated only slightly for both methods. The time taken to assess the SA by GP was less than half as long as for TW. An improvement in accuracy of SA estimation after repeated use was only observed for GP. CONCLUSION: Of the two methods tested neither proved to be superior. Determination of SA by the GP method was found to be more suitable for routine clinical practice.