[Automated system of bone maturity evaluation applied to the Tanner-Whitehouse 2 method]

Area of Science:

• Orthopedics
• Radiology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Assessing bone maturity is crucial for diagnosing growth disorders and planning treatments.
• Traditional methods like the Tanner-Whitehouse (TW2) method can be subjective and time-consuming.
• Automated image analysis offers a potential solution for objective and efficient bone age determination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate bone maturity using automated image analysis based on Fourier transformation.
• To compare the results of automated bone age assessment with the traditional Tanner-Whitehouse (TW2) method.
• To determine the concordance between manual and computerized bone age evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Bone maturity (BM) was assessed in 200 hand and wrist X-rays from 45 children (2-18 years) using the TW2 method.
• Automated BM evaluation was performed using the IMAGO 2 recognizance program with Fourier coefficient matrix comparison.
• Concordance between manual (TW2) and computerized (IMAGO 2) methods was analyzed.

Main Results:

• The computerized method tended to yield lower bone maturity values than the manual TW2 method.
• No significant differences in mean phases were found for the radius and fifth metacarpal.
• Concordance was lowest for the third metacarpal and phalanges, and highest for the semilunar and scaphoid bones.

Conclusions:

• Automated Fourier transformation image analysis shows potential for bone maturity assessment but with variable concordance across different bones.
• Differences in digitalization processes and standard images may explain reproducibility divergence with other computerized systems.
• Further refinement of automated methods is needed for consistent and reliable skeletal age determination.