Reproducibility of bone age assessment from DXA hand scans: expert versus novice

Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans are frequently used in human biological research to study bone health and body composition. Hand-wrist scans for the assessment of skeletal maturity can also be easily obtained in immature research participants who are being scanned to assess bone health....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of human biology 2021-06, Vol.48 (4), p.343-345
Main Authors: Keylock, Laura, Cameron, N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorptiometry, Photon
Adolescent
Age Determination by Skeleton
Bone and Bones
Bone Density
dxa
Hand - diagnostic imaging
Humans
Male
reliability
Reproducibility of Results
skeletal age
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Summary:Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans are frequently used in human biological research to study bone health and body composition. Hand-wrist scans for the assessment of skeletal maturity can also be easily obtained in immature research participants who are being scanned to assess bone health. Whilst assessment by an expert is the desired arrangement such expertise may not be available, and thus knowledge of the relative reproducibility of a trained novice and an acknowledged expert is pertinent. Here we compare the relative reproducibility of an expert and a trained novice on 41 DXA left-hand scans of adolescent males using the Tanner-Whitehouse 3 (TW3) RUS method. The trained novice showed almost perfect reproducibility when evaluating bone age from DXA hand scans compared to an expert in skeletal maturity assessment. Both observers demonstrated reproducibility good enough to suggest that the TW3 method is appropriate to use with DXA hand scans by a trained researcher.
ISSN:0301-4460
1464-5033
DOI:10.1080/03014460.2021.1956586