Abstract #1685

Skeletal Age Assessment Using a New Dedicated Hand MRI System for Young Children

Yasuhiko Terada¹, Saki Kono¹, Tomomi Uchiumi¹, Kazunori Ishizawa¹, Shinya Inamura¹, Katsumi Kose¹, Ryo Miyagi²,³, Eiko Yamabe², Yasunari Fujinaga², Hiroshi Yoshioka²

¹Institute of Applied Physics, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan; ²Department of Radiological Sciences, University of California Irvine, Orange, CA, United States; ³National Health Insurance Nishi-iya Clinic, Tokushima University, Miyoshi-shi, Tokushima, Japan

Skeletal age was assessed using a new, dedicated hand MRI system with a small permanent magnet, which enhanced the openness and compactness of the system and provided stress-free examinations. Measurements for 88 volunteers aged from 3.4 to 15.7 showed the high correlation between chronological and skeletal ages and the high agreement of skeletal rating between multiple raters. The quality of MR images was high in most cases. The results proved the validity of the skeletal rating using the new system.