A comparison of skeletal age of thalassemic patients of 9 – 15 years with chronological age by radiography.

Abstract

Objective: To compare bone/skeletal age of thalassemic children with chronological age by hand-wrist radiography to assess possible growth retardation. Study Design: Descriptive Cross-sectional study. Setting:  In collaboration of Radiology & Pathology Department of Sahiwal Teaching Hospital and Ali Zaib Foundation, Sahiwal. Period: January 2021 to June 2021. Material & Methods: Three hundred and fifty patients were purposively recruited for the study. Among them 250 were registered children of thalassemia at Ali Zaib Foundation, Sahiwal and 100 were non-thalassemic children taken as control group to make comparison of the findings from thalassemia patients. After approval from institutional review board (IRB) and taking written informed consent of the parents, the researchers get their hand-wrist radiographs done. Ossification centers were evaluated to assess bone age that was compared with chronological age. Data was analyzed using SPSS-24. Results: The statically significant difference was seen in bone age between the two groups as compared to their chronological age that remained statically non – significant. Conclusion: To evaluate possible growth retardation in thalassemia children, hand-wrist X-ray can be considered a standard modality.