Pollanen M S, Ubelaker D H
Forensic Pathology Unit, Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, Toronto, Canada.
J Forensic Sci. 1997 Sep;42(5):890-2.
The reasons why some hyoids fracture in strangulation and others do not may relate to anatomic features of the hyoid bone. On this basis, we studied the dimensions and shape of hyoid bones (n = 100) originating from the Terry collection, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. The hyoid bones were extensively polymorphic in both dimensions studied, the span or breadth, and the length of the cornua. There was no linear relationship between the breadth and length dimensions of the bone. Based on qualitative assessment, hyoid bones could be classed as either hyperbolic (55%) or parabolic (45%) in shape. Hyperbolic hyoid bones could be distinguished from hyoid bones with a parabolic configuration on the basis of the metric data although there was considerable overlap in the dimensions of hyoid bones of both configurations. Female hyoid bones tended to be smaller in both dimensions than male hyoid bones. The metric parameters of fractured hyoid bones from 10 cases (8 female, 2 male) of strangulation were compared with the dimensions of hyoid bones in this study. The metric features of the fractured hyoid bones were attributable to the predominance of females in the group of fractured hyoid bones studied, an observation that is anticipated because the majority of strangulations involve female decedents. On this basis, we conclude that variables other than the shape and dimensions of the hyoid bone are more relevant in determining if hyoid fracture occurs during strangulation.
在勒颈时，有些舌骨会骨折而有些则不会，其原因可能与舌骨的解剖特征有关。基于此，我们研究了来自史密森学会国家自然历史博物馆特里藏品中的100块舌骨的尺寸和形状。在所研究的两个维度，即舌骨的跨度或宽度以及角突的长度上，舌骨具有广泛的多态性。骨的宽度和长度维度之间不存在线性关系。基于定性评估，舌骨形状可分为双曲线形（55%）或抛物线形（45%）。尽管两种形态的舌骨尺寸有相当大的重叠，但根据测量数据，双曲线形舌骨可与抛物线形舌骨区分开来。女性舌骨在两个维度上往往都比男性舌骨小。将10例勒颈案件（8例女性，2例男性）中骨折舌骨的测量参数与本研究中舌骨的尺寸进行了比较。骨折舌骨的测量特征归因于所研究的骨折舌骨组中女性占主导地位，鉴于大多数勒颈案件涉及女性死者，这一观察结果在意料之中。基于此，我们得出结论，在确定勒颈过程中舌骨是否骨折时，舌骨的形状和尺寸以外的变量更具相关性。
