Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Bone age is an important reference of growth and development of human race. The data referred to in China was studied in early 1960s, there are few studies concerning modern adolescents.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the long bones’ development in knee and ankle joints of adolescents in Qingdao region, and to investigate the tendency of their skeletal development, which can add new data for the new standard of bone age of adolescents. 
METHODS: Totally 1 205 healthy adolescents, aged 9-20 years, living in Qingdao region were randomly selected. Anterior-posterior radiograms of knees and ankles were obtained. The time of epiphysis-diaphysis fusion of the long bones were observed. Meanwhile the correlation between the menarche and the epiphysis-diaphysis fusion time were analyzed. 
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The sequence of the epiphysis-diaphysis fusion in the knee and ankle long bones was as follow: the inferior end of tibia (Male: 15.179 years; Female: 13.379 years), the inferior end of fibula (Male: 15.290 years; Female: 13.472 years), the inferior end of femur (Male: 15.629 years; Female: 13.722 years), the superior end of fibula (Male: 15.708 years; Female: 13.753 years), and the superior end of tibia (Male: 16.329 years; Female: 14.027 years). The females’ menarche was obviously advanced and was highly correlated with the epiphysis-diaphysis time. The bone age of adolescents in Qingdao region is obvious earlier than the old data. New data should be accumulated for the research of anthropology, clinical and forensic medicine.