AUTOMATIC-ANALYSIS OF HAND RADIOGRAPHS FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF SKELETALAGE - A SUBSYMBOLIC APPROACH

The assessment of skeletal maturity is crucial for the analysis of gro wth disorders and plays an important role in paediatrics. For this rea son, several methods have been developed for estimating skeletal matur ity. Among them, the Tanner and Whitehouse method (TW2), which is base d on the analysis of hand radiographs, is usually considered the most accurate and reliable. Nevertheless, TW2 is applied only in a small fr action of cases, due to its complexity and long examination times. Thu s, the development of automated systems which reliably implement this method is highly desirable. However, major difficulties have been foun d in the development of computer-based systems for the assessment of s keletal maturity. In particular the extraction of the bones of interes t has proved to be extremely challenging. In this paper, we propose a system architecture for the implementation of the TW2 method, which is based on artificial neural networks. For each bone considered, the ma turation stage is determined by means of a two-step process which firs t locates the position of the bone in the radiograph and then analyzes the bone shape. Experimental results obtained with our implementation of the carpal version of TW2 are in good agreement with those provide d by trained observers. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.