Cappella Annalisa, Amadasi Alberto, Castoldi Elisa, Mazzarelli Debora, Gaudio Daniel, Cattaneo Cristina
LABANOF Laboratorio di Antropologia e Odontologia Forense, Sezione di Medicina Legale, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Luigi Mangiagalli 37, Milan, Italy.
J Forensic Sci. 2014 Nov;59(6):1598-601. doi: 10.1111/1556-4029.12539. Epub 2014 Jul 3.
The distinction between perimortem and postmortem fractures is an important challenge for forensic anthropology. Such a crucial task is presently based on macro-morphological criteria widely accepted in the scientific community. However, several limits affect these parameters which have not yet been investigated thoroughly. This study aims at highlighting the pitfalls and errors in evaluating perimortem or postmortem fractures. Two trained forensic anthropologists were asked to classify 210 fractures of known origin in four skeletons (three victims of blunt force trauma and one natural death) as perimortem, postmortem, or dubious, twice in 6 months in order to assess intraobserver error also. Results show large errors, ranging from 14.8 to 37% for perimortem fractures and from 5.5 to 14.8% for postmortem ones; more than 80% of errors concerned trabecular bone. This supports the need for more objective and reliable criteria for a correct assessment of peri- and postmortem bone fractures.
濒死期骨折与死后骨折的区分是法医人类学面临的一项重要挑战。目前，这一关键任务是基于科学界广泛接受的宏观形态学标准。然而，这些参数存在一些尚未得到充分研究的局限性。本研究旨在突出评估濒死期或死后骨折时的陷阱和错误。两名训练有素的法医人类学家被要求对四具骨骼（三名钝器伤受害者和一名自然死亡者）中已知来源的210处骨折进行分类，分为濒死期、死后或可疑三类，在6个月内进行两次分类，以便评估观察者内部误差。结果显示存在较大误差，濒死期骨折的误差范围为14.8%至37%，死后骨折的误差范围为5.5%至14.8%；超过80%的误差涉及小梁骨。这支持了需要更客观、可靠的标准来正确评估濒死期和死后骨折。
