Title 

Study of Morphological Changes Associated with Age in the Sternal End of the Fifth Rib to Assist in Age Estimation of an Individual.

Authors

Rohit Bharti, Anshul Saxena

 Abstract

Background: Medico-legal proceedings are highly dependent on the age estimation of an individual, and a method for age determination for one population cannot be applied to another population. There is a need for a sensitive India-specific instrument to determine age of an individual. Material & Methods: In this study, phase analysis method has been used to study the morphological changes in the sternal end of the fifth rib and to further assist in age estimation. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi. 150 cases brought to the Department of Forensic Medicine for post-mortem were recruited. The sternal ends of the fifth rib from both sides were isolated and studied, and age of the individual was estimated based on three components. The morphological changes in the sternal ends were found to be in accordance with the age of an individual. There was no difference in the findings of bilateral sides on all components. Conclusion: The results of this study reveal that morphological changes in the sternal ends of the fourth ribs gave an encouraging result for estimation of age by component method also.

keywords 

Age estimation, Sternal end, Phase Technique, Forensic Anthropology.

DOI