Human Variation and Identification Research Unit, School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2nd Floor, WITS Health Sciences Building, 7 York Road, Parktown,, Johannesburg, 2193, South Africa.
Department of Forensic Pathology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Int J Legal Med. 2020 Mar;134(2):709-719. doi: 10.1007/s00414-019-02048-7. Epub 2019 Apr 9.
Population variation of several microscopic structures used in age-at-death estimation was assessed for three different population samples. The aim of the study was to determine if the need exists for population-specific standards when dealing with individuals of African and European origin. A total sample 223 bone sections from the anterior cortex of the femur (n = 99 black South Africans, n = 94 white South Africans and n = 30 Danish individuals) were analysed using a stereological protocol. Variables assessed included the average number of osteons per grid area (OPD), osteon size and Haversian canal size. ANCOVA was employed for assessment of statistically significant differences. The results indicated that OPD differed significantly between the three groups, but that osteon size was similar for all individuals. Haversian canal size showed unpredictable changes with age and high levels of variation, making it unsuitable to use for age estimation as a single factor. As there are conflicting opinions in the literature on whether to use population-specific equations for the estimation of age-at-death or not, this paper provided additional insight into the use of specific variables and its related variation between groups.
本研究旨在评估三种不同人群样本中用于推断死亡年龄的几种微观结构的人群变异，以确定在处理来自非洲和欧洲的个体时是否需要特定于人群的标准。总共分析了来自股骨前皮质的 223 个骨切片（n=99 名南非黑人，n=94 名南非白人，n=30 名丹麦个体），使用体视学方案。评估的变量包括每个网格区域的平均骨单位数量（OPD）、骨单位大小和哈弗氏管大小。采用协方差分析（ANCOVA）评估统计学上的显著差异。结果表明，OPD 在三组之间有显著差异，但骨单位大小在所有个体中相似。哈弗氏管大小随年龄的变化不可预测，且变异程度高，因此不适合作为单一因素用于年龄推断。由于文献中对于是否应该使用特定于人群的方程来估计死亡年龄存在争议，因此本文提供了关于特定变量的使用及其在组间的相关变异性的额外见解。
