Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital of Frankfurt, Goethe University, Kennedyallee 104, 60596, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
Department of Anesthesiology, Operative Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy, University Hospital Gießen and Marburg, Gießen, Germany.
Int J Legal Med. 2022 May;136(3):753-763. doi: 10.1007/s00414-021-02705-w. Epub 2021 Nov 13.
The estimation of age-at-death of unidentified cadavers is a central aspect of the identification process. With increasing age, the incidence of glomerulosclerosis and the thickness of the carotid wall have been observed to also increase. This correlation has been demonstrated in various international histological studies. The aim of our study was to assess whether these correlations also apply to a Western European population.
In this retrospective observational study, kidney and common carotid artery samples from 216 cases autopsied at the Institute of Legal Medicine at the Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, were examined. Only cases with available tissue samples from both body sides were included. Exclusion criteria were poor sample quality and an age younger than 21 years. After histological processing, the tissue samples were assessed and digitally evaluated. Regression and classification analyses were used to investigate the correlation between age-at-death and intima-media thickness and age-at-death and the incidence of renal glomerular sclerosis.
Of the 216 autopsy cases, 183 were included for evaluation. Analysis of the carotid artery segments showed a strong correlation (Pearson correlation coefficient r = 0.887) between the intima-media-complex thickness and chronological age. Classification of the glomerulosclerotic incidence showed a correlation of 37.7-43.1% with the predicted age group.
Both the intima-media thickness and the proportion of sclerotic glomeruli can be used to estimate age in Western European cadavers. On the basis of these results, both methods are suited to supplement other already established methods for age-at-death estimation in the identification of an unknown cadaver.
对身份不明的尸体进行死亡年龄估计是识别过程的一个核心方面。随着年龄的增长，肾小球硬化的发生率和颈动脉壁的厚度也会增加。这一相关性已在各种国际组织学研究中得到证实。我们的研究目的是评估这些相关性是否也适用于西欧人群。
在这项回顾性观察研究中，对德国吉森市 Justus-Liebig 大学法医学研究所进行尸检的 216 例尸体的肾脏和颈总动脉样本进行了检查。仅纳入了双侧均有组织样本的病例。排除标准为样本质量差和年龄小于 21 岁。组织样本经过组织学处理后，进行评估和数字化评估。回归和分类分析用于研究死亡年龄与内中膜厚度以及死亡年龄与肾小球硬化发生率之间的相关性。
在 216 例尸检病例中，有 183 例符合评估条件。对颈动脉节段的分析显示，内中膜复合体厚度与实际年龄之间存在很强的相关性（Pearson 相关系数 r=0.887）。对肾小球硬化发生率的分类显示，与预测年龄组的相关性为 37.7-43.1%。
内中膜厚度和硬化肾小球的比例均可用于估计西欧尸体的年龄。基于这些结果，这两种方法都适合补充其他已经建立的用于识别未知尸体的死亡年龄估计方法。
