Size and skeletal maturation of the hand in children with hypothyroidism and hypopituitarism.

Hypothyroidism affects linear growth less than it affects skeletal maturation, while hypopituitarism linear growth is more severely affected. By determining the mean age for the length of the second metacarpal and dividing by the skeletal age, a ratio R was obtained in 15 hypothyroid children and in 33 with hypopituitarism. R was more than 1 in most hypothyroids and less than 1 in most children with hypopituitarism. Thus, a distinction between these two entities can be made simply from a hand radiograph and appropriate reference sources for determining second metacarpal length age and skeletal age.