Determination of skeletal age in children aged 8-18 years

Skeletal age determination exercise was performed by Greulich-Pyle method in 402 normal children (219 males and 183 females) aged 8-18 years during 1993-94 at Chandka Medical College, Larkana. On the average, the males were 1 year and the females were 0.5 years retarded from 8-15 years and from 8-13 years respectively. This retardation during childhood might be due to malnutrition, ill health or other environmental factors. However, males after 15 years and females after 13 years (round about puberty and afterwards) were found advanced in their skeletal age indicating earlier maturity in our children as compared to western children.