Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur 342005, India.
Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur 342005, India.
Leg Med (Tokyo). 2021 Nov;53:101951. doi: 10.1016/j.legalmed.2021.101951. Epub 2021 Jul 26.
Forensic age estimation is a crucial aspect of the human identification process. Sternebral fusion is one of the skeletal indicators of age that has not been thoroughly researched for the purpose of age estimation. The present study was conducted with the aim of assessing the utility of each of the sternebral fusion in age estimation, and to ascertain if these fusion stages can help in identifying whether an individual has attained the medicolegally significant ages of 16 and 18 years. Thoracic CT images of 148 study participants (74 females, 74 males) were analysed to evaluate the fusion of sternebrae 1-2, sternebrae 2-3, and sternebrae 3-4. The fusion scores for these were found to be statistically significant (P < 0.001) with sternebrae 1-2 fusion showing the highest coefficient of correlation at R = 0.900. Linear regression models were generated using each of the sternebral fusions separately and together for estimation of age. The standard error of estimate for the regression models ranged from 1.51 to 2.86 years. Box and Whisker plots were constructed to see the fusion score wise age distribution of the study population, and it was observed that sternebral fusion has the ability to indicate whether an individual has attained the age of 16 and 18 years. Our study concludes that sternebral fusion can act as an accurate method of forensic age estimation of juveniles and young adults.
法医年龄估算是人类身份识别过程中的一个关键方面。胸骨融合是骨骼年龄指标之一，但尚未对其进行深入研究以用于年龄估计。本研究旨在评估每种胸骨融合在年龄估计中的效用，并确定这些融合阶段是否有助于识别个体是否已达到法定重要的 16 岁和 18 岁年龄。分析了 148 名研究参与者（74 名女性，74 名男性）的胸部 CT 图像，以评估胸骨 1-2、胸骨 2-3 和胸骨 3-4 的融合情况。这些融合评分具有统计学意义（P<0.001），胸骨 1-2 融合的相关性最高，相关系数为 R=0.900。使用每个胸骨融合分别和一起生成线性回归模型，以估计年龄。回归模型的估计标准误差范围为 1.51 至 2.86 岁。构建了箱线图以观察研究人群的融合评分与年龄的分布情况，结果表明胸骨融合能够指示个体是否已达到 16 岁和 18 岁的年龄。我们的研究得出结论，胸骨融合可以作为一种准确的法医青少年和年轻成年人年龄估计方法。
