Elfawal Mohamed Amin, Alqattan Sahib Issa, Ghallab Noha Ayman
Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Saffat, Kuwait
Ministry of Interior Kuwait, Kuwait.
Med Sci Law. 2015 Jan;55(1):22-9. doi: 10.1177/0025802414524383. Epub 2014 Mar 3.
Estimation of age is one of the most significant tasks in forensic practice. Amino acid racemization is considered one of the most reliable and accurate methods of age estimation and aspartic acid shows a high racemization reaction rate. The present study has investigated the application of aspartic acid racemization in age estimation in a Kuwaiti population using root dentin from a total of 89 upper first premolar teeth. The D/L ratio of aspartic acid was obtained by HPLC technique in a test group of 50 subjects and a linear regression line was established between aspartic acid racemization and age. The correlation coefficient (r) was 0.97, and the standard error of estimation was ±1.26 years. The racemization age "t" of each subject was calculated by applying the following formula: ln [(1 + D/L)/(1 - D/L)] = 0.003181 t + (-0.01591). When the proposed formula "estimated age t = ln [(1 + D/L)/(1 - D/L)] + 0.01591/0.003181" was applied to a validation group of 39 subjects, the range of error was less than one year in 82.1% of the cases and the standard error of estimation was ±1.12. The current work has established a reasonably significant correlation of the D-/L-aspartic acid ratio with age, and proposed an apparently reliable formula for calculating the age in Kuwaiti populations through aspartic acid racemization. Further research is required to find out whether similar findings are applicable to other ethnic populations.
年龄估计是法医实践中最重要的任务之一。氨基酸消旋化被认为是最可靠、最准确的年龄估计方法之一，而天冬氨酸显示出较高的消旋化反应速率。本研究使用来自89颗上颌第一前磨牙的牙本质，调查了天冬氨酸消旋化在科威特人群年龄估计中的应用。通过高效液相色谱技术在50名受试者的测试组中获得了天冬氨酸的D/L比值，并建立了天冬氨酸消旋化与年龄之间的线性回归线。相关系数（r）为0.97，估计标准误差为±1.26岁。通过应用以下公式计算每个受试者的消旋化年龄“t”：ln[(1 + D/L)/(1 - D/L)] = 0.003181t + (-0.01591)。当将提议的公式“估计年龄t = ln[(1 + D/L)/(1 - D/L)] + 0.01591/0.003181”应用于39名受试者的验证组时，82.1%的病例误差范围小于1年，估计标准误差为±1.12。目前的工作已经建立了D-/L-天冬氨酸比值与年龄之间相当显著的相关性，并提出了一个显然可靠的公式，通过天冬氨酸消旋化来计算科威特人群的年龄。需要进一步研究以确定类似的发现是否适用于其他种族人群。
