Centre for Forensic Anthropology, The University of Western Australia, M420, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia.
Int J Legal Med. 2019 Nov;133(6):1903-1913. doi: 10.1007/s00414-018-01992-0. Epub 2019 Jan 4.
The transposition of traditional biological profiling methods to virtual skeletal reconstructions represents a relatively novel practice that is proving to be versatile in a variety of forensic contexts. Widespread acknowledgement of the disadvantages associated with archaeological and/or other non-contemporary skeletal collections has prompted an increase in the use of medical imaging modalities for the purposes of formulating population-specific reference standards used to estimate characteristics such as chronological age. The primary aim of the present study is to statistically evaluate the reproducibility of assessment and thereafter develop age estimation standards based on the morphoscopic evaluation of the fourth right sternal rib following the phase ageing method developed as reported by İşcan et al. (J Forensic Sci 29:1094-1104, 1984, J Forensic Sci 30:853-863, 1985) in clinical multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) scans. A total of 335 MSCT scans representing Western Australian individuals between 10 and 80 years of age (179 male and 156 female) were retrospectively reconstructed and analysed in OsiriX following the İşcan et al. sex-specific standards (J Forensic Sci 29:1094-1104, 1984, J Forensic Sci 30:853-863, 1985) for the fourth right rib. Regression and transition analyses are employed to generate standards for the estimation of chronological age and modelling of thoracic senescence, respectively. The method was also applied to right ribs three and five to evaluate intercostal variance in age-related metamorphosis. Intra- and inter-observer accordance is 'substantial' (K = 0.76) and 'almost perfect' (K = 0.825), respectively. Intercostal variances between ribs three to five were observed in the male sample only. Multiple regression using phase scores from all three ribs produced models with the highest predictive accuracy (± 10.04 years for males and ± 9.81 years for females). The transition analyses demonstrate comparable levels of age-related morphological change across ribs and male and female samples. This study presents a novel set of reference standards for a contemporary Australian population and further demonstrates the utility of virtual analysis in forensic anthropology.
将传统的生物特征分析方法应用于虚拟骨骼重建是一种相对新颖的实践，在各种法医学背景下具有广泛的应用。由于认识到考古学和/或其他非现代骨骼标本的局限性，因此越来越多地使用医学成像技术来制定特定人群的参考标准，以估计年龄等特征。本研究的主要目的是统计评估形态学评估的可重复性，然后根据 İşcan 等人（J Forensic Sci 29:1094-1104, 1984，J Forensic Sci 30:853-863, 1985）提出的相位年龄法对第四右胸骨肋进行形态学评估，在此基础上建立年龄估计标准。总共对 335 例来自西澳大利亚州 10 至 80 岁（179 名男性和 156 名女性）的临床多层螺旋 CT（MSCT）扫描进行回顾性重建和分析，在 OsiriX 中，按照 İşcan 等人（J Forensic Sci 29:1094-1104, 1984，J Forensic Sci 30:853-863, 1985）的性别特异性标准（J Forensic Sci 29:1094-1104, 1984，J Forensic Sci 30:853-863, 1985）对第四右肋进行分析。使用回归和过渡分析分别生成用于估计年龄和建模胸壁衰老的标准。该方法还应用于右 3 肋和 5 肋，以评估与年龄相关的变形中肋间的变异性。观察者内和观察者间的一致性分别为“高度一致”（K=0.76）和“几乎完美”（K=0.825）。仅在男性样本中观察到 3 肋至 5 肋之间的肋间差异。使用所有 3 根肋骨的相位得分进行多元回归，产生了预测准确性最高的模型（男性为±10.04 岁，女性为±9.81 岁）。过渡分析表明，在肋骨和男性和女性样本中，年龄相关的形态变化水平相当。本研究为当代澳大利亚人群提供了一套新的参考标准，并进一步证明了虚拟分析在法医人类学中的实用性。
