Premium
Pattern of correlations in the skeleton of the growing hand
Author(s) -
HEWITT DAVID
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
annals of human genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.537
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1469-1809
pISSN - 0003-4800
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-1809.1963.tb00208.x
Subject(s) - phalanx , skeleton (computer programming) , deformity , radiography , orthodontics , neighbourhood (mathematics) , gray (unit) , anatomy , medicine , demography , mathematics , surgery , nuclear medicine , sociology , mathematical analysis
SUMMARY From radiographs of the hand taken at the age of 2 years the lengths of nineteen bones were determined for each member of ninety‐nine sib pairs. An attempt was made to account for the variation of these lengths in terms of additive contributions from a general factor, group factors (one for each finger and one for each row) and special factors (one for each bone). The analytic model proved to be inadequate because of relatively high correlation between bones in the same neighbourhood, whether or not they belong to the same finger or row. Terminal phalanges were estimated to have a relatively low degree of integration with the hand as a whole and with stature, but a high degree of sib resemblance. A special study was made of the medial phalanx of the fifth finger, leading to the suggestion that this bone is involved in a common finger deformity because it is hyper‐responsive to general growth factors. The Oxford Child Health Survey is supported by a grant from the Medical Research Council.