Radiological age estimation from fusion at xiphi- sternal joint of living persons through ct images of thoracic region

Abstract

Determination of age is really important and sometimes it is a difficult task in medico- legal practices. Aim of this study was to confirm whether the status of the fusion at xiphisternal joint can be used to estimate the age. Total of 275, who underwent computed tomography (CT) thoracic examination, were selected as the study sample. RadiAnt Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) viewer was used to observe the fusion state. There was a negative correlation between fusion category and age in males (r = -0.325, p < 0.001), no significant correlation in females (r = 0.094, p = 0.346) and, a negatively significant correlation (r = -0.165, p = 0.006) in both sexes. There was a statistically significant difference in age between different fusion categories, χ2 (2) = 63.61, p < 0.001 in males, χ2 (2) = 31.98, p < 0.001 in females and, χ2 = 97.76, p < 0.001 in both sexes. There was a strong negative correlation between non-fusion age and distance of joint space in males (r = -0.479, p = 0.006), in females (r = -0.963, p < 0.001) and, in both sexes (r = -0.758, p < 0.001).