Utility of Clavicle MRI for Age estimation of Under-20 football Male players in Ethiopia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Estimation of skeletal age is a means of assessing development and the process of skeletal maturation in children and adolescents for football, clinical or forensic purposes, these assessments involve comparing the skeletal age of a test population against established standards. To guarantee equal chances for participants in U-20 football tournaments, it seems desirable to verify the ages given by players with questionable dates of birth. Objective: To assess the utility of 1.5 tesla MRI of the clavicle in estimating the ages of U 20 football players at SPHMMC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods: Facility based retrospective cross-sectional study. By using a lottery method 125 male football player were selected from under 20 male Ethiopian football player who were imaged for age estimation by Wrist and Clavicle MRI in the period of oct-2016-june 2019 at SPHMMC- Radiology department, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. all examinations were performed using a 1.5 T MRI system. The research was carried out after approval was obtained from the ethics responsible committee. The study was conducted from May to June2019. All MRI images were assessed by two senior consultant radiologist independently. Data entry and analysis was performed using SPSS version 21. Results: The average age increased with higher degree of ossification(stage). Age estimated by using wrist MRI, tenner and dental age provide only completion of 18 years of life and limited value for evaluation of under 20. Conclusions and Recommendation: The existence of an ossification stage 4 or 5 on MRI images of the medial clavicular epiphysis appears to provide evidence of completion of the 20th year of life. Because of the limited age spectrum, the results of the pilot study need to be verified in a larger number and broader age spectrum. We need to develop our own context standard ossification stage of medial clavicular growth plate for age estimation as we use the western standard.