Wittwer-Backofen Ursula, Gampe Jutta, Vaupel James W
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
Am J Phys Anthropol. 2004 Feb;123(2):119-29. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.10303.
Recent research indicates that tooth-cementum annulations (TCA) may be used more reliably than other morphological or histological traits of the adult skeleton to estimate age. Until now, however, confidence intervals for age estimated by this method have not been available for paleodemographic and forensic applications. The present study addresses this problem. Based on a large known-age sample, age estimates by TCA were conducted in a blind study involving 363 teeth. Tooth-root cross sections were made using a refined preparation technique. Improved digital graphic procedures and enhancement strategies were used to produce digital images with a specially adapted software package. This resulted in high concordance between the TCA age estimates and chronological age. Assessment of the method's accuracy, as expressed by 95% confidence intervals, showed that error bounds for age estimates do not exceed 2.5 years. Sex differences, intraindividual correlations, and the effects of periodontal disease were studied. None of these indicators had a quantitative effect on the number of TCA bands when the proposed methodological standard was followed. We conclude that the TCA technique is a reliable method for estimating a subject's age from cementum annulations.
近期研究表明，与成年骨骼的其他形态学或组织学特征相比，牙骨质年轮（TCA）可能是更可靠的年龄估算方法。然而，迄今为止，通过这种方法估算年龄的置信区间在古人口统计学和法医学应用中尚未得到应用。本研究解决了这一问题。基于一个已知年龄的大样本，在一项涉及363颗牙齿的盲法研究中，通过TCA进行年龄估算。使用改良的制备技术制作牙根横截面。采用改进的数字图形程序和增强策略，利用一个经过专门改编的软件包生成数字图像。这使得TCA年龄估算值与实际年龄高度一致。以95%置信区间表示的该方法准确性评估表明，年龄估算的误差范围不超过2.5岁。研究了性别差异、个体内相关性以及牙周疾病的影响。当遵循所提出的方法标准时，这些指标均未对TCA带的数量产生定量影响。我们得出结论，TCA技术是一种从牙骨质年轮估算个体年龄的可靠方法。
