Skeletal Bone Age Assessment – Research Directions

Abstract

The work was motivated by the increasing awareness of the need for bone age assessment (BAA) schemes featuring an appropriate methodology for skeletal age estimation. The endocrinological problems in youngsters are already evident in many countries worldwide, varying in scale and intensity for different age groups and sexes. Change in lifestyles and eating habits of people also contribute to endocrine disorders, increasing the need for a system that predicts such problems well in advance. Skeletal bone age assessment is a procedure often used in the management and diagnosis of endocrine disorders. It also serves as an indication of the therapeutic effect of treatment. It is of much significance in pediatric medicine in the detection of hormonal growth or even genetic disorders. Bone age is assessed from the left-hand wrist radiograph and then compared with the chronological age. A discrepancy between the two indicates abnormalities. This paper consists of an overall review and technical assessments of various skeletal age assessment schemes in the literature. This review also recommends some research areas in this field and those leading to high efficiency are highlighted

PSO for Graph-Based Segmentation of Wrist Bones in Bone Age Assessment

“…This paper proposes an efficient segmentation technique using graphs for segmenting the bones in the radiograph. We have done a thorough survey of literature on BAA methods in our previous work [5], explaining in detail the various work done in BAA and providing directions for future research. Our previous work [6] describes a computerized BAA method for carpal bones, by extracting features from the convex hull of each carpal bone, named as the convex hull approach.…”

“…We have done a thorough survey of literature on BAA methods in our previous work [5], explaining in detail the various work done in BAA and providing directions for future research. Our previous work [6] describes a computerized BAA method for carpal bones, by extracting features from the convex hull of each carpal bone, named as the convex hull approach. We have also proposed an automated BAA method to estimate bone age from the feature ratios extracted from carpal and radius bones, named as the feature ratio approach.…”

“…[8] We have also exploited the epiphysis/ metaphysis region of interest (EMROI) in BAA using our Hausdorff distance approach. [9] A comparative study of the above four BAA approaches has been conducted using partitioning technique. [10] We have also proposed an efficient method for feature analysis of radiographs using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) based on PSO.…”

“…We have also proposed an automated BAA method to estimate bone age from the feature ratios extracted from carpal and radius bones, named as the feature ratio approach. [7] Our decision tree approach utilizes features from the radius and ulna bones and their epiphyses for BAA. [8] We have also exploited the epiphysis/ metaphysis region of interest (EMROI) in BAA using our Hausdorff distance approach.…”

“…[7] Our decision tree approach utilizes features from the radius and ulna bones and their epiphyses for BAA. [8] We have also exploited the epiphysis/ metaphysis region of interest (EMROI) in BAA using our Hausdorff distance approach. [9] A comparative study of the above four BAA approaches has been conducted using partitioning technique.…”