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Utility of the sternal synostosis for age-at-death estimation in a Mediterranean population

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Abstract

Age estimation is essential for the identification of skeletal remains in Forensic Anthropology. Numerous studies have been performed on diverse regions of the skeleton, including the synostosis of the sternal segments. In this sense, the fusion of the different sternal segments was assessed to analyze whether it had a correlation with age-at-death in a Mediterranean population. A total of 189 sternums which belonged to individuals between the ages of 20 and 98 from both sexes (56.6% males; 43.4% females), from the San José’s Cemetery of Granada Contemporary Collection (Spain), were selected. Scores ranging from 1 to 3 were assigned in accordance with the degree of manubrio-sternal fusion and sterno-xyphoidal fusion. Cohen’s kappa coefficient for intra- and inter-observer error was performed and then chi-square test was run to analyze any correlation between the stage of synostosis and the skeletal age. Only the sterno-xyphoidal fusion, which starts between 30 and 39 years old, provided a predictable result, as the manubrium and the sternal body usually remain without fusion. This study demonstrates a direct correlation between fusion of the xyphoid process and chronological age.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Emucesa, the San José Cemetery Company of Granada, for allowing us access to study material, to Álvaro Monge-Calleja, Ph.D., for his help and his time reviewing this manuscript before being sent, and also to the Laboratory of Physical Anthropology of the University of Granada and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Funding

This work has been supported by a grant from the FPU Research and Teaching Fellowships (Becas de Formación de Profesorado Universitario FPU), 2018 announcement, ref. FPU18/00669, from the Ministry of Education and Professional Formation, Government of Spain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Anthropology, Dept. of Legal Medicine, Toxicology and Physical Anthropology, University of Granada, Avda. de la Investigación, 11, 18016, Granada, Spain

    Manuel Partido Navadijo & Inmaculada Alemán Aguilera

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  1. Manuel Partido Navadijo
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  2. Inmaculada Alemán Aguilera
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Correspondence to Manuel Partido Navadijo.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

In this case, at the moment that the Osteological Collection of the University of Granada was created, the Ethics Committee in Human Research of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Granada (https://medicina.ugr.es/facultad/comite-etica-investigacion-humana-universidad-ceih) was consulted for the authorization of the pertinent permissions. The Committee resolved that there is no need of written consent, as it is an Osteological Collection from XX and XXI centuries, composed by unclaimed skeletons from the cemetery that are anonymized for the study and do not represent any kind of biological risk.

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Partido Navadijo, M., Alemán Aguilera, I. Utility of the sternal synostosis for age-at-death estimation in a Mediterranean population. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 18, 423–428 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-022-00506-0

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