Interrelationship of carpal angle and bone age in children of different generations: a retrospective study.

Background: Carpal angle measurement is one of the anthropometrical methods to evaluate the maturation of children.

Objective: To discuss the relationship between bone age and carpal angle in the maturation of children of two different generations.

Subjects And Methods: The first group (mid-1960s group) includes 521 Taiwanese children, 196 boys and 325 girls, growing during the agricultural period (between 1966 and 1967). The second group (mid-2000s group) includes 326 children, 74 boys and 252 girls, growing during the mid-2000s. The bone age of both groups was assessed by two leading physicians, and the carpal angle was measured by two senior radiologists. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare the relationship of carpal angle and bone age among eras, sexes, and chronological ages.

Results: According to the same chronological age and sexes, the carpal angle of those in the mid-2000s group was larger than that of the mid-1960s group. In addition, in the same chronological age, the results also show that the mean carpal angle of girls in both generations was larger than that of boys. However, it is notable that the carpal angle of boys in the mid-2000s group is larger than that of girls in the mid-1960s group. Furthermore, by comparing the environmental condition, we suspect that the differences between carpal angles of both generation children are caused by the great changes in socioeconomic and nutrition status in Taiwan.

Conclusion: The study presents a quantitative comparison of carpal angle between two generations of Taiwanese. The preliminary result indicates that the carpal angle for the mid-2000s group is larger than that for the mid-1960s groups.