Would an MRI showing the growth plates in the long bones of the chinese gymnasts prove they are underage?

Question

Would an MRI of the femurs or other long bones of young adolescents between 10 and 16 show reliable proof of age? The growth plates and epiphyses are known to go through changes during this age.

Answer 1

yes but they can be 15 and still be in the olympics. the rule is that they have tobe turing 16 this year

Answer 2

yes it would but it wouldnt determine the real age of the person  

Answer 3

An MRI of bones wouldn't conclude anything about

someones age.MRIs are used to visualize soft tissue structures (muscle, ligaments, brain, ect.)  You don't do an MRI to evaluate bones.  Others types of imaging might be effective...xrays, bones scans...however, there's no type of imaging that can accurately tell exactly how old someone is.  For instance, there are certain characteristics of bone during different stages of the aging process.  To a certain extent you can tell ABOUT how old someone might be by looking at x-rays, within a few years or so. That being said,  I don't see that they could use that to conclude that a person is 16 as opposed to 15 or 14.  Science can do some pretty amazing things these days but an MRI of femurs wouldn't tell them anything they couldn't find out otherwise.