School of Anatomical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Int J Legal Med. 2024 Mar;138(2):467-486. doi: 10.1007/s00414-023-03085-z. Epub 2023 Sep 29.
Age estimation is crucial when the state of personhood is a mitigating factor in the identification of immature human remains. The maturation sequence of immature bones is a valuable alternative to dental development and eruption standards. Bordering the foramen magnum and pars basilaris, the pars lateralis is somewhat understudied. The aim of this study was to comprehensively describe the morphology of the immature human pars lateralis bone. Human pars laterali were sourced from the crania of 103 immature individuals of unknown provenance from the Johannesburg Forensic Paediatric Collection (JFPC), University of the Witwatersrand (HREC-Medical: M210855). The study sample was subdivided into early prenatal (younger than 30 gestational weeks; n = 32), prenatal (30-40 gestational weeks, n = 41) and postnatal (birth to 7.5 months, n = 30) age groups. The morphology of the pars laterali was studied using a combination of bone mineral density pattern assessments, geometric morphometrics and stereomicroscopy. Bone mineral density in postnatal individuals was lower when compared with the prenatal individuals. No statistically significant differences between density points were noted. The overall shape of the pars lateralis changed from a triangular shape in the early prenatal individuals to a fan-like quadrilateral bone in postnatal individuals. The angulation of the medial border for the foramen magnum highlighted a change in shape between straight in the early prenatal cohort to V-shaped in the postnatal individuals. The various technical approaches used in the current study provided detailed descriptions of the pars lateralis which establishes a valuable foundation for diagnostic criteria employing morphological predictors for biological profiling.
当个人状态是确定不成熟人类遗骸身份的减轻因素时，年龄估计至关重要。不成熟骨骼的成熟序列是牙发育和萌出标准的有价值替代方法。毗邻枕骨大孔和基底部的侧部研究得较少。本研究的目的是全面描述不成熟人侧部骨骼的形态。人类侧部取自约翰内斯堡法医儿科收藏（JFPC），威特沃特斯兰德大学（HREC-Medical：M210855）未确定来源的 103 名未知来源的不成熟个体的颅骨。研究样本分为早期产前（小于 30 孕周；n = 32）、产前（30-40 孕周，n = 41）和产后（出生至 7.5 个月，n = 30）年龄组。使用骨矿物质密度模式评估、几何形态测量和立体显微镜相结合的方法研究侧部的形态。与产前个体相比，产后个体的骨矿物质密度较低。未注意到密度点之间的统计学差异。侧部的整体形状从早期产前个体的三角形变为产后个体的扇形四边形。枕骨大孔内侧边界的角度突出了形状的变化，从早期产前队列的直线变为产后个体的 V 形。当前研究中使用的各种技术方法提供了对侧部的详细描述，为使用形态预测因子进行生物特征分析建立了有价值的诊断标准基础。
