Forensic age estimation in living children: how accurate is the Greulich-Pyle method in Sabah, East Malaysia?

Background: The Greulich and Pyle's Radiographic Atlas of Skeletal Development of the Hand and Wrist (GP Atlas) is the most widely used method of determining the bone age (BA) of a child. It is also a widely accepted method for forensic age determination. As there is limited local bone age data for forensic age estimation, the purpose of this study was to assess the accuracy of the GP Atlas for forensic age determination in living Sabahan children. Method: This study recruited 182 children between the ages of 9 years to 18 years. BA estimation of the left-hand anteroposterior radiographs were performed by two experienced radiologists using the Greulich-Pyle method. Results: The BA estimates from two radiologists had very high interobserver reliability (ICC 0.937) and a strong positive interobserver correlation (r > 0.90). The GP method, significantly and consistently underestimated chronological age (CA) by 0.7, 0.6 and 0.7 years in overall children, boys and girls respectively with minimal errors. Mean absolute error and root of mean squared error for overall children was 1.5 and 2.2 years respectively, while mean absolute percentage error was 11.6%. This underestimation was consistent across all age groups but was statistically significant only at 13-13.9 and 17-18.9 years old age groups. Conclusion: Despite high interobserver reliability of BA estimation using the GP Atlas, this method consistently underestimates the age of the child in all children to a significant degree, for both boys and girls across all age groups, with an acceptably low level of error metrics. Our findings suggest that locally validated GP Atlas or other type of assessments (artificial intelligence or machine learning) are needed for assessment of BA to accurately predict CA, since current GP Atlas standards significantly underestimated chronological age with minimal error for children in Sabah. A larger population-based study would be necessary for establishing a validated atlas of a bone age in Malaysia.

A clinically silent tumour of adrenal myelolipoma: A case report.

INTRODUCTION: Adrenal myelolipoma is a rare, non-functional, benign neoplasm which is constituted of mature haematopoietic elements and adipose tissues in various proportions. It is diagnosed accidentally and frequently with the widespread use of imaging modalities. PRESENTATION OF CASE: We report a 63-year-old lady with incidental findings of adrenal tumour on computed tomography (CT) scan during a routine medical check-up. She underwent tumour resection in view of a large tumour of 7 cm in size. DISCUSSION: CT scan is sensitive to diagnose adrenal myelolipoma in view of its fat-laden property and useful to monitor the tumour progress. Even previously she opted for conservative management; the decision for surgery was made in view of enlarging tumour and risk of surrounding tissue compression. CONCLUSION: With increased awareness, the detection rate of this tumour is improving, hence able to prevent the complications of a large tumour such as compression, bleeding and tumour necrosis.

Promoting antenatal care services for early detection of pre-eclampsia.

A prospective, quasi-experimental study was carried out in 2009 at urban health centres (UHCs) of five townships of Mandalay, Myanmar, to improve the skill of midwives (MWs) in diagnosis and referral of pre-eclampsia (PE) from UHC to the Central Women's Hospital (CWH) and to enhance the supervision of midwives by lady health visitors (LHVs). The intervention was training on quality antenatal care focusing on PE using an updated training manual. Altogether, 75 health care providers (MWs & LHVs) participated. In this study, data were extracted from patient registers and monthly reports of UHCs and CWH. Interviewers were trained regarding the conduct of semi-structured questionnaires to elicit knowledge and to use checklists in observation of skills in screening of PE, measuring blood pressure and urine protein (dipstick test). A guide for LHVs was also used to obtain data, and data was collected six months prior to and after the intervention. Significant improvements from baseline to endline survey occurred in the knowledge (p<0.001) and skill levels (p<0.001) including skills for screening, measuring blood pressure and urine protein. At CWH, there was an increase in referred cases of PE after the intervention, from 1.25% to 2.56% (p<0.001). In conclusion, this study highlights the early detection of pre-eclampsia by widespread use of quality antenatal care, education and training of health-care providers to improve their performance and increase human resources for health care, in order to enable women in our society to have healthy pregnancies and healthy babies.