[Values for the cortical thickness and diameter of the metacarpals of normal Aragonese children in the 1st 4 years of life. Longitudinal study].

The measurement of the metacarpal cortical thickness as well of the diameter is an accurate, simple and economic procedure in the clinical diagnosis of the growth deficiency. Our study reports the increasing values of such parameters obtained from a normal Spanish population controlled at ages 0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 4, in the growth studies center "Andrea Prader" of Zaragoza.