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Sex and age at death estimation from the sternal end of the fourth rib. Does Íşcan's method really work?

Author information

Affiliations

  • 1. Legal Medicine School of Madrid, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Avenida Complutense s/n, Facultad de Medicina, Pabellón 7, Madrid 28040, Spain.
      Authors
    • Muñoz A 1
    • Benito M 1
    • Sánchez JA 1
    (3 authors)
  • 2. Instituto de Ciencias Forenses of México City, Avenida de Niños Héroes 130, Colonia Doctores, 06720 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico.
      Authors
    • Maestro N 2
    • Trejo D 2
    (2 authors)
  • 3. Cranfield Forensic Institute, Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham SN6 8LA, UK.
      Authors
    • Márquez-Grant N 3
    (1 author)
  • 4. Department of Paleobiology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, Madrid 28006, Spain; Department of Physical Anthropology, Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi, Zorroagagaina, 11, Donostia 20014, Basque Country, Spain.
      Authors
    • Ríos L 4
    (1 author)

ORCIDs linked to this article

Legal Medicine (Tokyo, Japan), 05 Dec 2017, 31:24-29
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.legalmed.2017.12.002 PMID: 29272755 

Abstract 

The fourth rib has been used commonly in order to estimate age at death and even sex in skeletal remains but many often, Iscan's estimates do not adjust to the real age of the individual. Population specific references for sex and age-at-death estimation from the sternal end of the fourth rib are presented for a contemporary Mexican sample. A total of 504 ribs with known sex and age from a morgue sample were studied (444 males, 60 females, 17 to 92 years old). The height and breadth of the sternal end of the rib were sexually dimorphic (p = .000), and allowed a correct sex assignment in 73.3% to 84% of the cases from univariate and multivariate discriminant functions. With regard to age-at-death estimation, the morphological changes summarized by the phases of the sternal end of the fourth rib are correlated with known age in this sample (Spearman's Rho, p = .000). However, the original age intervals tend to underestimate age at death and inaccuracy increases with phase scored in males. Descriptive statistics for rib phase are provided for males and females, and new age-at-death estimates based on transition analysis and Bayesian statistics are provided for the male sample. The test of universally applied methods and the development of population specific references is an important task for forensic anthropology around the world.

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Read article at publisher's site: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.legalmed.2017.12.002

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