Quaremba Giuseppe, Buccelli Claudio, Graziano Vincenzo, Laino Alberto, Laino Luigi, Paternoster Mariano, Petrone Pierpaolo
Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, University of Naples "Federico II"-5, Via Pansini, 80131 Naples, Italy; Department of Industrial Engineering, Division of Mechanics and Energetics, University of Naples "Federico II"-21, Via Claudio, 80125 Naples, Italy.
Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, University of Naples "Federico II"-5, Via Pansini, 80131 Naples, Italy.
Forensic Sci Int. 2018 Feb;283:190-199. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2017.12.027. Epub 2017 Dec 21.
Nowadays, given the massive migration movements toward and across EU countries, age assessment can be highly useful for estimating the real age of asylum seekers or in medico-legal assessments of age-disputed children charged with criminal acts. Demirjian et al.'s dental maturity score is currently a dental scoring system universally adopted for age assessment of unidentified children. Here we explore the biological compatibility of Demirjian's scores with respect to the estimation of certain chronological ages of forensic interest through an algorithm based on the theory of constrained graphs integrated with combinatory analysis. Rather than simply respect Demirjian's indications (direct method) on a sample of children, we followed a reverse procedure (indirect method) as follows: i. chronological age selection and identification of the corresponding maturity score (MS); ii. determination of all the possible combinations of dental maturity stages whose sum of the scores is equal to the MS under consideration; iii. checking for all such possible combinations the biological congruity of the state of maturity of each tooth compared to the chronological age initially chosen. By evidencing dental development inconsistencies, our mathematical approach explains why Demirjian's method typically overestimates age. Therefore, even if the method in question remains the recommended way to assess individual dental maturity, it should definitely be considered unsuitable for application in certain forensic scenarios, particularly as regards the most disputed age range 14-16 years.
如今，鉴于大量人员向欧盟国家迁移以及在欧盟国家间流动，年龄评估对于估算寻求庇护者的实际年龄或在对被控犯罪行为的年龄存疑儿童进行法医学评估时非常有用。德米尔坚等人的牙齿成熟度评分目前是一种普遍采用的用于未识别儿童年龄评估的牙齿评分系统。在此，我们通过一种基于约束图理论并结合组合分析的算法，探讨德米尔坚评分在估算某些法医学关注的实际年龄方面的生物学兼容性。我们并非简单地遵循德米尔坚对一组儿童样本的指示（直接法），而是采用了如下反向程序（间接法）：i. 选择实际年龄并确定相应的成熟度评分（MS）；ii. 确定所有牙齿成熟阶段的可能组合，其评分总和等于所考虑的MS；iii. 针对所有此类可能组合，检查每颗牙齿的成熟状态与最初选择的实际年龄相比的生物学一致性。通过揭示牙齿发育不一致情况，我们的数学方法解释了为什么德米尔坚方法通常会高估年龄。因此，即使该方法仍是评估个体牙齿成熟度的推荐方法，但在某些法医学场景中，尤其是在最具争议的14 - 16岁年龄范围内，它肯定应被视为不适用。
