[The type and frequency of hand skeletal anomalies and their significance for body height growth].

The frequency of minor skeletal anomalies of the hand, such as brachymesophalangia, pseudo- and cone-shaped-epiphyses, as well as shortness of the fourth metacarpal bone were investigated in almost 5000 healthy children, undergoing orthodontic treatment. In addition body length was compared to the percentile curves of Kunze. Surprisingly, only 42% of all hand films demonstrated normal morphology. Certain anomalies could be found more frequently in girls than in boys and these seemed to exert an inhibitory effect on growth potential.