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The digital atlas of skeletal maturity by Gilsanz and Ratib: a suitable alternative for age estimation of living individuals in criminal proceedings?

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Abstract

As a collection of radiographic standards of the normal hand development with a homogenous degree of maturity of all skeletal elements, the digital atlas of skeletal maturity by Gilsanz and Ratib combines the possibilities of digital imaging with the principle of a conventional atlas method. The present paper analyses the forensic applicability of skeletal age assessment according to Gilsanz and Ratib to age estimation in criminal proceedings. For this, the hand X-rays of 180 children and adolescents aged 10–18 years old were examined retrospectively. For the entire age range, the minima and maxima, the mean values and standard deviations as well as the medians with upper and lower quartiles are specified by sex. For the legally relevant age groups from 14 to 18 years, there is a risk of overestimation of the chronological age of up to 7.2 months in females. The method of Gilsanz and Ratib is therefore only suitable to forensic age estimation in criminal proceedings to a limited extent.

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Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Dr. K. Minas (Papenburg), PD Dr. R. Fuchs (Berlin), PD Dr. G. Stobbe (Berlin) and Prof. Dr. F. Schmidt (Leipzig) for providing the hand radiographs evaluated in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Rechtsmedizin, Röntgenstraße 23, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Sven Schmidt, Ronald Schulz & Andreas Schmeling

  2. Friesenstraße 4, 12524, Berlin, Germany

    Inna Nitz

  3. Institut für Rechtsmedizin, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Turmstraße 21, 10559, Berlin, Germany

    Michael Tsokos

Authors
  1. Sven Schmidt
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  2. Inna Nitz
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  3. Ronald Schulz
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  4. Michael Tsokos
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  5. Andreas Schmeling
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Correspondence to Andreas Schmeling.

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Schmidt, S., Nitz, I., Schulz, R. et al. The digital atlas of skeletal maturity by Gilsanz and Ratib: a suitable alternative for age estimation of living individuals in criminal proceedings?. Int J Legal Med 123, 489–494 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-009-0367-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-009-0367-2

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