Automatic bone age estimation based on carpal-bone image--a preliminary report.

B C Fan; C W Hsieh; T L Jong; C M Tiu

Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 11458757

Automatic bone age estimation based on carpal-bone image--a preliminary report.

B C Fan·C W Hsieh·T L Jong·C M Tiu

View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Bone age (BA) estimation is one of the important applications of hand radiography in the area of pediatrics, especially for the diagnosis of endocrinological problems and growth disorders. BA estimation (BAE) is tedious, time-consuming and highly dependent upon the expert experience. Nowadays, most BAE standards are based on American standards, but there is no BAE standard for Taiwanese people. We attempt to construct a computerized BAE system to automate BAE and in the long run to build a BAE standard for Taiwanese. METHODS: Our BAE system is based on the carpal bone information. We propose a new 2-stage edge detection method for carpal bone feature extraction and a new method for locating the carpal bone region of interest. RESULTS: After the image is manually equalized, our BAE system can estimate the bone age automatically. The extracted carpal bone features were applied to three classifiers for age estimation: the weighted minimum distance, Bayes, and neural network classifiers. The Bayes and neural network classifiers had better results. In the 0.5-year tolerance case, they both had over 90% correct rate for both male and female training data. In the 1-year tolerance case, they could classify correctly for the male and female testing data. CONCLUSIONS: A computerized BAE system has been developed and some experiments have been conducted. It is found that the classifying results for 0.5-year tolerance are good and satisfactory.

Explore related subjects

Age Determination by Skeleton Carpal Bones Female Humans Male Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

B C Fan, C W Hsieh, T L Jong, C M Tiu. 2001. Automatic bone age estimation based on carpal-bone image--a preliminary report.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11458757/

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2007

Variation in cortical bone histology within the human femur and its impact on estimating age at death.

Histological methods for the estimation of age at death using cortical bone are based on the evaluation of microstructural changes over time. Since histological analysis is a destructive method, most techniques attempt to limit the amount of cortical bone needed for analysis. Sample location, however, can have a significant effect on the accuracy of these methods. Furthermore, research demonstrates that both intersection and intrasection variation is present at the midshaft of the femur, which is the primary location for estimating age at death in humans. This research determines the extent of regional variation within the adult human femur and its effect on age estimation. Secondary osteon lamellae and Haversian canal ratio and cortical thickness were quantified. Thompson's All Males Left Femur regression equation was used to estimate age. Results show that significant regional variation occurs in the estimated ages derived from the posterior aspect of the femoral shaft and significant intrasection variation occurs in age estimates from the mid and mid-distal cross-sections. Thus, the inter and intrasection variation that occurs in bone remodeling within the femoral cortex has the potential to produce significant differences amongst age estimates taken from various femoral diaphyseal locations compared to the age estimated from the standard location used in Thompson's core method (1978). The results indicate that the use of this histological method is dependant on the ability to correctly identify the four anatomical locations, but the extracted core used for age estimation is not necessarily confined to the anterior midshaft.

Age Determination by Skeleton↗

PubMed2007

An elusive paleodemography? A comparison of two methods for estimating the adult age distribution of deaths at late Classic Copan, Honduras.

Comparison of different adult age estimation methods on the same skeletal sample with unknown ages could forward paleodemographic inference, while researchers sort out various controversies. The original aging method for the auricular surface (Lovejoy et al., 1985a) assigned an age estimation based on several separate characteristics. Researchers have found this original method hard to apply. It is usually forgotten that before assigning an age, there was a seriation, an ordering of all available individuals from youngest to oldest. Thus, age estimation reflected the place of an individual within its sample. A recent article (Buckberry and Chamberlain, 2002) proposed a revised method that scores theses various characteristics into age stages, which can then be used with a Bayesian method to estimate an adult age distribution for the sample. Both methods were applied to the adult auricular surfaces of a Pre-Columbian Maya skeletal population from Copan, Honduras and resulted in age distributions with significant numbers of older adults. However, contrary to the usual paleodemographic distribution, one Bayesian estimation based on uniform prior probabilities yielded a population with 57% of the ages at death over 65, while another based on a high mortality life table still had 12% of the individuals aged over 75 years. The seriation method yielded an age distribution more similar to that known from preindustrial historical situations, without excessive longevity of adults. Paleodemography must still wrestle with its elusive goal of accurate adult age estimation from skeletons, a necessary base for demographic study of past populations.

Age Determination by Skeleton↗

PubMed2006

Use of multislice computed tomography in disaster victim identification--advantages and limitations.

After a mass fatality incident (MFI), all victims have to be rapidly and accurately identified for juridical reasons as well as for the relatives' sake. Since MFIs are often international in scope, Interpol has proposed standard disaster victim identification (DVI) procedures, which have been widely adopted by authorities and forensic experts. This study investigates how postmortem multislice computed tomography (MSCT) can contribute to the DVI process as proposed by Interpol. The Interpol postmortem (PM) form has been analyzed, and a number of items in sections D and E thereof have been postulated to be suitable for documentation by CT data. CT scans have then been performed on forensic cases. Interpretation of the reconstructed images showed that indeed much of the postmortem information required for identification can be gathered from CT data. Further advantages of the proposed approach concern the observer independent documentation, the possibility to reconstruct a variety of images a long time after the event, the possibility to distribute the work by transmitting CT data digitally, and the reduction of time and specialists needed at the disaster site. We conclude that MSCT may be used as a valuable screening tool in DVI in the future.

Age Determination by Skeleton↗