Factors affecting skeletal maturation / 国际儿科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Skeletal maturation is a complex process involving the appearance of ossification centers, the width and capping of the epiphysis, and the fusion of the epiphysis.Bone age is considered to be a valuable tool in assessing children′s skeletal maturity and evaluating growth.Many factors influence the progress of skeletal maturation, which are mainly devided into endocrine and non-endocrine ones.The former include estrogen, adrenal hormone, growth hormone, and thyroid hormone.The latter contain nutrition, chronic disease, environment or diet, genetics, etc.But there is not a scientific system that has been established.Whether some factors are responsible for skeletal maturation is still controversial, such as insulin-like growth factor-1, leptin, sex hormone binding globulin, insulin and so on.This review focuses on the factors affecting skeletal maturation.It is expected to develop individualized programs in the clinical evaluation and management of children with growth and related diseases, and to provide references for further research.