ON THE DYNAMICS OF THE GROWTH-PROCESS

Recent publications have provided evidence that the short-term growth process may be regarded as pulsatile rather than constant over time. The possible influence of changes in soft tissue thickness is one reason why it is not possible to draw any final conclusion about the existence or not of such a pulsatile short-term growth pattern. An answer can probably not be reached until a method has been developed that measures longitudinal bone growth without any soft tissue involvement, especially since such a method has recently been used in the rabbit showing that the day-to-day growth rate was linear or continuous.