Age-at-death estimation based on micro-CT assessment of pubic symphysis: Potentially new methodological approach

Abstract

Background: Although various methods for age-at-death estimation of skeletal remains are available, this is still an unsolved issue in forensic anthropology, especially concerning elderly individuals. Moreover, the lack of population-specific methods often made age-at-death estimation unreliable in other populations.

Aim: Our study aimed to examine whether micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) analysis of pubic bone samples obtained from the contemporary Serbian population could be used in anthropological and forensic practice for age-at-death estimation.

Methodology: This study encompassed 62 pubic samples obtained from 26 adult male and 36 adult female cadaveric donors (age range: 22-91 years). Initially, staging according to the Suchey-Brooks phases was performed by two experienced investigators, followed by micro-CT assessment of pubic bone trabecular and cortical compartments (spatial resolution of the scans was 10 µm).

Results: Our results revealed an age-associated decline in trabecular and cortical micro-architecture of elderly male and female individuals, with the most prominent changes present in trabecular bone volume fraction and total porosity of the anterior and posterior cortical surface of the pubic bone. Those parameters were used to generate age-at-death estimation equations. One sample t-test did not reveal a significant difference between estimated age-at-death and real (known) age-at-death in the overall sample (mean absolute error [MAE] of 4.76 years), female (MAE of 9.66 years) and male cadaveric donors (MAE of 6.10 years, p > 0.05).

Conclusion: Our data indicated that micro-architectural features of trabecular and cortical compartments of pubic bone could potentially be applied as an additional reliable method for age-at-death estimation in the Serbian population.

Keywords: Age-at-death assessment; Forensic anthropology; Micro-CT; Pubic symphysis.