Select unit of
measure, gender, and race by clicking on the drop-down boxes.
Enter age (years)
in the text box and hit ENTER.
Enter height
(centimeters or inches) in the text box and hit ENTER.
Enter bone mineral
content (grams) in the text box and hit ENTER.
Open
Growth Chart Applet for comparison (see below)
The calculated Z-score
and percentile values appear at the top of the form, and a point is plotted
on the graph. Be sure to press ENTER after typing age, after typing height,
and after typing bone mineral content (BMC), or your entries will not
be processed correctly. Calculated values are updated immediately upon hitting
ENTER (after typing in a value), and after clicking one of the buttons. Height
data are plotted
in centimeters, regardless of the units of measure used for data entry.
Only whole-body data are
available at this time. BMC datasets are machine-specific, and only
the Hologic dataset is available at present. Please note the age ranges
available for these evaluations (refer to the graphs). If you enter an out-of-range
age, your entry will be ignored and the calculated values will not be updated.
BMC in
children increases with skeletal growth and maturation. BMC is also dependant
on bone size. These graphs show the general pattern for BMC vs height and
age separately. The graphs will change for gender and ethnicity.
The Z-score value reflects
the combined effects of age, height, gender, and ethnicity. The graphs are
for display purposes only, to verify that the correct parameters have been
entered. The calculated BMC Z-score at the upper right is the final value.
In order to help
interpret the calculated Z-score, it may be useful to review a child's
growth as compared to the normal population. Click the button on the
left to plot a child's weight and height on the normal growth curves,
and to calculate the associated percentiles. The application will
open and run in a new, smaller browser window to allow for comparisons
between the two graphs.
Reference
data: Growth charts [National Center for Health Statistics]
at the CDC
web site.
Data
used to produce these charts come from the CNRC Body Composition Laboratory
Normal Child Database and are machine-dependant.
