L'IRM du genou permet-elle de déterminer si un individu est âgé de plus ou moins de 18 ans ? Étude préliminaire chez les hommes [Does distal femur MRI contribute to the determination of the 18-year limit in forensic age estimation of living individuals? A preliminary study among males]

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_30EE6427FB68
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
L'IRM du genou permet-elle de déterminer si un individu est âgé de plus ou moins de 18 ans ? Étude préliminaire chez les hommes [Does distal femur MRI contribute to the determination of the 18-year limit in forensic age estimation of living individuals? A preliminary study among males]
Journal
La Revue de Médecine Légale
Author(s)
Saint-Martin P., Rérolle C., Savall F., Pucheux J., Dédouit F., Telmon N.
ISSN
1878-6529
ISSN-L
1878-6529
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2014
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
5
Number
4
Pages
160-164
Language
french
Abstract
Forensic age estimation of living individuals is of critical importance in forensic medicine, especially because of the constant increase of migration flows. Non-invasive imaging procedures such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been studied to minimize radiation exposure of the individual examined. Recently, a German team studied MRI of the distal femur and their results suggested that if a male had a complete union of the metaphyseal-epiphyseal junction, he was at least 18-years old. We decided to verify this result and retrospectively reviewed 214 MR scans of the distal femur. We selected only males aged between 14 and 20 years. Two observers evaluated the images separately and with one criterion: whether the metaphyseal-epiphyseal junction was totally fused on all images or not. We confirmed the results of the aforementioned study. All patients younger than 18-years old were evaluated as incompletely fused. Full ossification first occurred at the age of 18.1 years. Thus, even these results only concerns males and if both samples are originated from two countries with a high level of modernization, they suggest that the distal femur is a suitable epiphysis for forensic age estimation, and that MRI has a prominent place in this field.
Keywords
Forensic anthropology, Forensic age estimation, Magnetic resonance imaging, Femur, Knee
Create date
12/01/2016 15:38
Last modification date
20/08/2019 13:15
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