Bone age delay in Perthes disease and transient synovitis of the hip

Patients with transient synovitis of the hip were found to have a bone age delay similar to the one found in patients in the active stages of Perthes disease. This finding led to a study on the relationship between the bone and chronologic ages in patients affected by either disease, in activity, and in the residual stage through to the end of growth. Bone age of all patients was established by means of a radiograph of both wrists and hands and the quantified data were compared with the Greulich and Pyle Atlas. All the patients in the active stage of both diseases revealed a bone age delay with different values and different time evolution but with some degree of overlapping between the thirtieth and seventieth months of age. The bone age delay persisted after healing of the respective disease and tended to diminish with time in an erratic way until the age of puberty when the bone and chronologic ages assume similar values. Transient synovitis of the hip usually occurs in only one hip.