Variation of bone age progression in healthy children.

Bone age assessments were related to auxological variables in 407 Italian boys, between 7 and 12 years of age, in order to elucidate the factors that affect the rate of skeletal maturation and to examine the possibility of using measures of skeletal maturation of evaluate individual patients. Using the radius-ulna-short bones (RUS) method of assessment, bone age velocity was greater in the Italian boys than for the UK reference standards, although there was considerable interindividual dispersion around the mean. Bone age velocity and height velocity were poorly correlated, and there was little correlation between skeletal and pubertal maturation.

Body proportionality of the small-for-date fetus: is it related to aetiological factors?

The classification of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) fetuses into symmetrical and asymmetrical has been widely used since the introduction of ultrasound into obstetric diagnosis. The purpose of this study was to assess the possibility of relating body proportionality of the SGA fetuses to aetiological factors. Ultrasound measurements of the head circumference (HC), abdominal circumference (AC) and femur length (FL) were obtained in 348 SGA fetuses subdivided into aetiological groups (structural and/or chromosomal anomalies, twins, abnormal placental vascularization, maternal malnutrition, infectious diseases, drug addiction, unknown).

Main problems associated with bone age and maturity evaluation.

In scientific papers, skeletal maturation-expressed as bone maturity scores or bone age-is often used as a quantifiable variable similar to height or weight. This paper discusses whether this approach is appropriate. The questions addressed are whether skeletal maturation can be measured on a quantitative scale, whether its use is appropriate in computing, and what the 'numbers' used represent.

Growth velocity monitoring of the efficacy of different therapeutic protocols in a group of thalassaemic children.

Since intensive chelating therapy for thalassaemic children was introduced, growth rates appear to have diminished. To investigate what factors were responsible we compared velocities of growth in length over a period of 1 year between groups distinguished by different strategies of treatment. Forty-two thalassaemic patients, 30 males aged 4-12 years, and 12 females, 4-10 years old, were assigned from their current treatment into subgroups based upon blood ferritin levels, daily dose of desferrioxamine and urinary zinc levels.

The distribution of age at menarche in a random series of Turin girls followed longitudinally.

A longitudinal study on 508 girls chosen at random from the elementary schools of Turin showed that age at menarche had a Gaussian distribution. The mean age was 12.58 +/- 0.

Distinctive skeletal dysplasia in Cockayne syndrome.

Cockayne syndrome is a well-known autosomal recessive form of dwarfism with senile-like appearance. Skeletal changes such as flattening of vertebral bodies, ivory epiphyses and thickening of cranial vault, have been observed in some patients with this condition. We describe here a 5.