Any endocrinologists in the house?

I'm a mechanic, but this is an area of interest of mine. What questions ?

 

I'm a radiologist and we do a great deal of imaging for thyroid, pituitary, and other glands. You can pm me or post it.

 

The test you're referring to for the growth plates is a Bone Age study where a single xray of the hand is taken and compared to a standard plates of images for boys and girls with a standard deviation. We examine the xray and compare certain bones in the wrist and hand and estimate the skeletal age of the child. From what you've said, the 12 maybe the referring to the 12 year old child's hand resembling/matching your daughters who is 7 years old in which case that would imply that the bones are advanced for the age. If it matches the 9 year old plate then I would say she your daughters xray is still a bit advanced as the std deviation could be around 12-15 months (I don't have the atlas with me for a definitive #). Nonetheless, I am assuming your doc has the book we use when we interpret the images which is Gruelich & Pyles Atlas of Skeletal Development. Be sure this is what your doc has compared the xray to.

 

No worries.

Not a bad idea at all. Just be sure they have a radiologist read the film (an MD) and not a PA as some states allows PAs to "read" for radiologist. I'm in NJ and we don't have radiology PAs so we read all of our studies. I also say this because many facilities won't perform Bone age studies as they only pay a few dollars so not worth the time for some centers. So pick a facility that does them routinely so they have proficient docs to interpret them.

 

I would recommend you get a copy of all of the radiology images on a CD/DVD (DICOM images, not some JPEG screenshot). You can always upload those studies for a second opinion at a lot of well known groups across the US. For instance your physician can submit the images to CHOP (no affiliation) for a second review. https://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/department-radiology/resources-for-professionals

It's very important you get a radiologist (physician) to read the study. In my residency, the pediatric hospital had some radiographs (xrays) read by the primary care doctors and the radiologists (MDs) would have to do random reviews occasionally to make sure they were accurate...not every study. A lot of practices are like that.