Abstract
Post-mortem interval (PMI) estimation is an important issue in forensic medicine, particularly for criminal purposes and legal limitation periods. The goal of the present study is to examine the evolution of the trabecular cranial vault bone after 4 weeks of conservation in a controlled environment with micro-tomography (μCT) analyses.
Four bone samples were extracted from a fresh human cranial vault (a donation to science according to the French law) and conserved in an air-controlled environment. The samples were weighed and μCT scanned at a 10-μm resolution every week after death for a month. The μCT features were identical for every sample. Each set of data from the μCTs was reconstructed, registered, and analyzed in terms of the total volume, bone volume, bone surface, number of trabeculae, trabeculae thickness, and mean distance of the trabeculae. The samples were conserved in a glass box in 20 °C air with 60% humidity in a laboratory hood between each μCT acquisition. Descriptive statistics were determined. Each sample was observed and compared to itself over time.
After 1 month of conservation, the mean bone volume (−1.9%), bone surface (−5.1%), and trabecular number (−12.35%) decreased, whereas the mean trabecular separation (+5.55%) and trabecular thickness (+12.7%) increased. Many variations (i.e., increases and decreases) were observed between the extraction of the sample and the end of the 4 weeks of conservation. The present observations may be explained by bone diagenesis. Previous observations have indicated that protein and lipid losses occur with bone weight and volume losses. These diagenesis effects may explain the trabecular modifications observed in the present work. We observed many bone variations with the μCT scans between the beginning and the end of the conservation that had no explanations. Additional studies, particularly studies involving statistics, need to be performed to confirm our observations and explain these results more clearly.
References
Knight B (1988) The evolution of methods for estimating the time of death from body temperature. Forensic Sci Int 36:47–55
Henssge C, Madea B, Gallenkemper E (1988) Death time estimation in case work. II. Integration of different methods. Forensic Sci Int 39:77–87
Henssge C (1988) Death time estimation in case work. I. The rectal temperature time of death nomogram. Forensic Sci Int 38:209–236
Davis JB, Goff ML (2000) Decomposition patterns in terrestrial and intertidal habitats on Oahu Island and Coconut Island, Hawaï. J Forensic Sci 45:836–842
Kovarik C, Stewart D, Cockerell C (2005) Gross and histologic postmortem changes of the skin. Am J Forensic Med Pathol 26:305–308
Behrensmeyer AK (1978) Taphonomic and ecologic information from bone weathering. Paleobiology 4(2):150–162
Haglund WD, Sorg MH (1996) Forensic taphonomy. The postmortem fate of human remains. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Ubelaker DH (1999) Human skeletal remains: excavation, analysis, interpretation. Taraxacum, Washington
Haglund WD, Reay DT, Swindler DR (1989) Canid scavenging/disarticulation sequence of human remains in the Pacific Northwest. J Forensic Sci 34:587–606
Knight B (1969) Methods of dating skeletal remains. Med Sci Law 9(4):247–252
Swift B (1998) Dating human skeleton remains: investigating the viability of measuring the equilibrium between 210 Po and 210 Pb as a means of estimating post mortem interval. Forensic Sci Int 117(1–2):73–87
Taylor RE (1987) Radiocarbon dating: an archeological perspective. Academic press, Orlando
Taylor RE, Suchey JM, Payen LA, Slota PJ (1989) The use of radiocarbon (14 C) to identify human skeletal materials of forensic interest. J Forensic Sci 34(5):1196–1205
Castellano MA, Villanueva EC, Von Frencke R (1984) Estimating the date of bone remains: a multivariate study. J Forensic Sci 29(2):527–534
Schwartz HP, Agur K, Jantz LM (2010) A new method for determination of post mortem interval: citrate content of bone. J Forensic Sci 55(6):1516–1522
Bertoluzza A, Brasili P, Castri L, Facchini F, Fagnano C, Tinti A (1997) Preliminary results in dating human skeleton remains by Raman spectroscopy. J Raman Spectrosc 28(2–3):185–185
McLaughlin G, Lednev IK (2011) Potential application of Raman spectroscopy for determining burial duration of skeletal remains. Anal Bioanal Chem 403(8):2511–2518
Feldkamp LA, Goldstein SA, Parfitt AM, Jesion G, Kleerekoper M (1989) The direct examination of three-dimensional bone architecture in vitro by computed tomography. J Bone Miner Res 4(1):3–11
Bouxsein ML, Boyd SK, Christiansen BA, Guldberg RE, Jepsen KJ, Müller R (2010) Guidelines for assessment of bone microstructure in rodents using micro-computed tomography. J Bone Miner Res Jun 25(7):1468–1486
Chappard D, Retailleau-Gaborit N, Legrand E, Basle MF, Audran M (2005) Comparison insight bone measurements by histomorphometry and microCT. J Bone Miner Res 20(7):1177–1184
Kuhn JL, Goldstein SA, Feldkamp LA, Goulet RW, Jesion G (1990) Evaluation of a microcomputed tomography system to study trabecular bone structure. J Orthop Res 8(6):833–842
Müller R, Van Campenhout H, Van Damme B, Van Der Perre G, Dequeker J, Hildebrand T et al (1998) Morphometric analysis of human bone biopsies: a quantitative structural comparison of histological sections and micro-computed tomography. Bone 23(1):59–66
Thomsen JS, Laib A, Koller B, Prohaska S, Mosekilde L, Gowin W (2005) Stereological measures of treabecular bone structure: comparison of 3D micro computed tomography with 2D histological sections in human proximal tibial bone biopsies. J Microsc 218:171–179
Rühli FJ, Kuhn G, Evison R, Müller R, Schultz M (2007) Diagnostic value of micro-CT in comparison with histology in the qualitative assessment of historical human skull bone pathologies. Am J Phys Anthropol 133:1099–1111
Chappard D, Baslé M-F, Legrand E, Audran M (2008) Trabecular bone microarchitecture: a review. Morphology 92:162–170
Hart GO (2005) Fracture pattern interpretation in the skull: differentiating blunt force from ballistics trauma using concentric fractures. J Forensic Sci 50(6):1276–1281
Robson Brown K, Silver IA, Musgrave JH, Roberts AM (2010) The use of mCT technology to identify skull fracture in a case involving blunt force trauma. Forensic Sci Int 206:e8–e11
Delannoy Y, Colard T, Becart A, Tournel G, Gosset D, Hedouin H (2013) Typical external skull beveling wound unlinked with a gunshot. Forensic Sci Int 226:e4–e8
Cecchetto G, Amagliani A, Giraudo C, Fais P, Cavarzeran F, Montisci M et al (2012) MicroCT detection of gunshot residue in fresh and decomposed firearm wounds. Int J Legal Med 126(3):377–383
Chappard C (2012) Méthodes d’évaluation de la microarchitecture de l’os trabéculaire humain. Médecine Sci 28:1111–1115
Klintström E, Smedby Ö, Moreno R, Brismar TB (2014) Trabecular bone structure parameters from 3D image processing of clinical multi-slice and cone-beam computed tomography data. Skelet Radiol 43(2):197–204
Ding M, Odgaard A, Hvid I (1999) Accuracy of cancellous bone volume fraction measured by micro-CT scanning. J Biomech 32:323–326
Odgaard A (1997) Three-dimensional methods for quantification of cancellous bone architecture. Bone 20(4):315–328
Nägele E, Kuhn V, Vogt H, Link TM, Müller R, Lochmüller E-M et al (2004) Technical considerations for microstructural analysis of human trabecular bone from specimens excised from various skeletal sites. Calcif Tissue Int 75(1):15–22
Delannoy Y, Colard T, Le Garff E, Mesli V, Aubernon C, Penel G et al (2016) Effects of the environment on bone mass: a human taphonomic study. Leg Med Tokyo Jpn 20:61–67
Nielsen-Marsh CM, Hedges REM (2000) Patterns of diagenesis in bone I: the effects of site environments. J Archaeol Sci 27:1139–1150
Wieberg DA, Wescott DJ (2008) Estimating the timing of long bone fractures: correlation between the postmortem interval, bone moisture content, and blunt force trauma fracture characteristics. J Forensic Sci 53(5):1028–1034
Hildebrand TOR, Rüegsegger P (1997) Quantification of bone microarchitecture with the structure model index. Comput Methods Biomech Biomed Engin 1(1):15–23
Fiedler S, Graw M (2003) Decomposition of buried corpses, with special reference to the formation of adipocere. Naturwissenschaften 90(7):291–300
Hedges REM (2002) Bone diagenesis: an overview of processes. Archaeometry 44(3):319–328
Turner-Walker G, Syversen U (2002) Quantifying histological changes in archaeological bones using BSE-SEM image analysis. Archaeometry 44:461–468
Quattropani L, Charlet L, de Lumley H, Menu M (1999) Early Palaeolithic bone diagenesis in the Arago cave at Tautavel, France. Mineral Mag 63:801–812
Burghardt AJ, Pialat JB, Kazakia GJ et al (2013) Multicenter precision of cortical and trabecular bone quality measures assessed by high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography. Bone Miner Res 28(3):524–536
Ellouz R, Chapurlat R, van Rietbergen B et al (2014) Challenges in longitudinal measurements with HR-pQCT: evaluation of a 3D registration method to improve bone microarchitecture and strength measurement reproducibility. Bone 63:147–157
Palanca M, Tozzi G, Cristofolini L et al (2015) Three-dimensional local measurements of bone strain and displacement: comparison of three digital volume correlation approaches. J Biomech Eng 137(7). doi:10.1115/1.4030174
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the American Journal Expert for their help in proof reading.
Contributors
All authors were implicated in the development, writing, and review of the present study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Le Garff, E., Mesli, V., Delannoy, Y. et al. Technical note: early post-mortem changes of human bone in taphonomy with μCT. Int J Legal Med 131, 761–770 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-016-1509-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-016-1509-y