A new method for assessment of skeletal maturity in the first 2 years of life.

We present an original scoring method for assessing skeletal maturity in the first 2 years of life. We propose a lateral radiograph of the ankle and foot. Five different bony centers were examined: the calcaneus, the cuboid, the third cuneiform, the distal tibial epiphysis and the distal fibular epiphysis. The maturity scores given to the different stages of each bony center were calculated in proportion to the coefficients of regression between the skeletal maturity and a factor that expresses the influence of weight and head circumference as high multiple correlation coefficients of skeletal maturity with the factor were obtained (0.920 for boys and 0.929 for girls). Our method was standardized in a children population of less than two years of life in Biscaye, where 1,164 radiographs were taken. The distribution of scores in this study shows the discriminative ability of our method and its validity as an adequate method for skeletal maturity assessment in children less than 2 years of age.