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Iztok Štamfelj Tomaž Hitij, Petra Leben-Seljak
The present study was performed on a skeleton excavated from the Late Roman Period necropolis in Ptuj, Eastern Slovenia. According to grave-goods it belongs to a Hun warrior from the 5th century AD. Osteological analysis revealed that he died in his early twenties. The skull displays artificial cranial deformation of circular fronto-occipital type and shows some Asiatic anthroposcopic features. However, the inter-orbital projection method of Gill and Hughes places him into the Western Eurasian group. The aim of the present investigation was to estimate whether this individual belonged to Western Eurasian or Eastern Asian ancestry group by analysing his dental morphology. Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) was used to visualise morphology of the roots. The analysis revealed a complex tooth crown morphology (moderate maxillary incisor shoveling, 5-cusped maxillary first and second molars, 6-cusped mandibular first molars, 5-cusped mandibular second molars, multiple molar enamel extensions) and a simplified external root morphology (27 single-rooted teeth out of 32). Both mandibular second molars and the right mandibular third molar possess a C-shaped root canal. In addition, the mandible bilaterally exhibits accessory mental foramina. Twenty-one key dental traits for ancestry assessment were scored following the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System (ASUDAS). These scores were input into a web application rASUDAS (beta version) which uses a naive Bayes classifier algorithm to assign an individual to a preselected number (from two to seven) of ancestry groups. In a two-group analysis, the application calculated that the probability of assigning the individual from Ptuj to Eastern Asian ancestry group was close to 1.0. This study demonstrates a modern approach to estimating ancestry from dental morphology in bioarcheological and forensic contexts..
(J Forensic Odontostomatol 2019;37;2:2-8)
Cheiloscopy in individuals with Down syndrome and their nonsyndromic biological siblings
Larissa Chaves Cardoso Fernandes, Julyana de Araújo Oliveira, Patrícia Moreira Rabello, Bianca Marques Santiago, Marcus Vitor Diniz de Carvalho, Evelyne Pessoa Soriano3
The study aimed to carry out a comparative analysis between the lip print patterns in individuals with Down Syndrome and their nonsyndromic biological siblings. This was a cross-sectional blind study using an inductive approach and extensive direct observation procedures. A total of 68 cheiloscopic charts, named cheilograms, were divided into two groups (n=34), as follows: G1, including Down Syndrome individuals; and G2, including their nonsyndromic siblinggs. The convenience sample was selected in the city of João Pessoa, PB, Brazil. The following features were evaluated in eight labial regions called sub-quadrants: oral commissures (downturned, horizontal and upturned); lip thickness (thin, medium, thick and mixed); and labial grooves (I – complete vertical; I ‘- incomplete vertical; II – bifurcated; III – criss-cross; IV – reticular; or V – undefined). The data were analyzed by paired Student’s t test and McNemar’s Chi-square, with a 5% significance level. MostDown Syndrome individuals were found to have downturned oral commissures in 73.5% of cases, while their siblings showed a predominance of horizontal commissures in 73.5% of cases (p=0.009). There was no statistically significant difference for lip thickness between groups. In the analysis of labial groove patterns, Down Syndrome individuals (G1) showed a significant prevalence of the type I pattern (52.2%) as compared to their nonsyndromic siblings (30.1%) (p<0.001). Due to the tendency of having vertical labial groove patterns and downturned commissures, Down Syndrome individuals present cheiloscopic differences in relation to their nonsyndromic biological siblings, which suggests that syndromic genetics influences the development of these features. However, this may imply in a reduced potential of cheiloscopic identification due to the low divergence of labial phenotypes among Down Syndrome individuals.
(J Forensic Odontostomatol 2019;37;2:9-17)
The use of panoramic images for identification of edentulous persons
Emelie Lundberg, Natalie Strandberg Mihajlovic, Mats Sjöström, Jan Ahlqvist
The aim of this study was to determine if edentulous persons could be identified using panoramic images by: I) investigating the possibility of matching two panoramic radiographs of the same person obtained on two different occasions, II) determining what anatomical features are used as the base for matching, III) investigating if oral and maxillofacial radiologists (OMR) and dentists who were not oral and maxillofacial radiologists (NOMR) differed in their ability to match the images, and IV) determining if the time elapsed between the images affected the results or the confidence of the match. Panoramic image pairs from 19 patients obtained on two different occasions were included, plus 10 images from other edentulous patients. The time elapsed between the image pairs varied between 4 months and 6 years. Four OMR and four NOMR were asked to match the image pairs depicting the same patient. The participants marked each match as “certain”, “likely”, or “possible” and what anatomical structure they used for matching. The OMR group correctly matched 100% of the images and the NOMR group correctly matched 96%. The anatomy of the mandible was most often used for matching. The OMR group was more certain in their decisions than the NOMR group. The time elapsed between the examinations did not affect the result. In conclusion, panoramic images can be used to identify edentulous patients. Both OMR and NOMR could identify edentulous individuals when only panoramic radiographic images were available and the OMR were especially confident in the identification process.
(J Forensic Odontostomatol 2019;37;2:18-24)
Rosane Pérez Baldasso, Nicole Prata Damascena, Alexandre Raphael Deitos, Carlos Eduardo Palhares Machado, Ademir Franco, Rogério Nogueira de Oliveira
Background: Understanding the morphologic alterations of the human face over the time is an essential step towards optimal simulations of facial age progression. In practice, these simulations contribute to the forensic routine by tracking and recognizing missing persons. Objective: This study aimed to assess the morphometric facial alterations with aging – concerning specifically the development of ear, nose and lip in relation to other facial structures. Material and methods: The sample consisted of 700 photographs taken standardly in frontal view from male and female Caucasian subjects aged from 20 to 80 years old. The sample was divided in 7 age groups (20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 and 80 years old), in which 50 males and 50 females were distributed homogenously. Photoanthropometric analysis was applied with SAFF 2D® 2.0.05 (SEPAEL/INC, Federal Police, Brazil) software package considering 36 facial landmarks. A single examiner analyzed the sample aided by two other examiners for the assessment of intra-/inter-rater reliability. Results: The most evident alterations found in the facial structures consisted of the enlargement of the nose and ears with aging, as well the reduction in size of the lip thickness. These alterations varied considerably in the specific age ranges studied in this research being different between males and females. Conclusion: The present outcomes indicated the possibility of quantifying morphometric alterations observed in the human face with aging. These alterations may support the forensic practice providing tools for age estimation based on photographic analyses.
(J Forensic Odontostomatol 2019;37;2:25-34)
Geometric morphometric analysis of sexual dimorphism in the mandible from panoramic X-ray images
Emilio Nuzzolese, Patrick Randolph-Quinney, Jennifer Randolph-Quinney, Giancarlo Di Vella
The human mandible is routinely utilised as part of the assessment of biological identity in forensic anthropological and odontological practice. The research introduces a novel geometric morphometric technique to investigate and quantify shape variation in the morphology of the mandibular corpus and ascending ramus and consequently highlights the potential for forensic purposes. Human mandibles from digital clinical orthopantomogram X-ray images, based on a sample of 50 male and 50 female adults from a modern Italian population, were examined. Three fixed landmarks were applied to the symphysis and condyle and 50 semi-landmarks re-sampled along the inferior corpus and the posterior ramus. Symmetrical reflection was applied yielding 200 configurations of 53 landmarks. Shape analyses were undertaken via: Procrustes superimposition; principal components analysis to investigate patterns of variation; classification using linear discriminant analysis with leave-one-out cross-validation; partial least squares (PLS) to test for structural modularity; and finally, retitle page sampling and re-analysis following PLS to optimize shape classification criteria. Stepwise re-sampling of landmarks reached an optimum cross-validated classification of 94.0% based on 25 landmarks; the results are strongly significant and suggest that the shape relationship between the mandibular corpus and ramus offers significant potential for forensic identification purposes using this method.
(J Forensic Odontostomatol 2019;37;2:35-44)
Sex estimation in Indians by digital analysis of the gonial angle on lateral cephalographs
Chetan Belaldavar, Ashith B. Acharya, Punnya Angadi
Objective: Sex estimation of skeletons is important in forensic reconstructive identification. The mandible is a durable component that is suitable to discriminate the sexes while lateral cephalometry is a standardised radiographic technique accepted as a tool in personal identification. Limited data is available for the mandibular/gonial angle as a parameter for sex assessment using lateral cephalometric radiographs. The aim of this study is to determine the gonial angle’s accuracy in sexing Indians using a new digital method and statistical approach. Method: The sample comprised of 304 digital lateral cephalometric radiographs (155 females and 149 males, age between 18-30 years) of Indian subjects. The mandibular/gonial angle was measured on these radiographs using Adobe Photoshop software using tools available therein. The obtained angles for the sexes were subjected to logistic regression analysis (LRA), which forms a composite of weighted independent variables using a multivariate strategy. Results: The average angle was 122.7° for females and 121.1°for males. LRA produced an accuracy rate of 56.3% in sex assessment, with females being more accurately identified (61.9%) than males (50.3%). Conclusion: The study demonstrated significant univariate sexual dimorphism among males and females in this population. However, the sex prediction value of this approach was low and thus may not be useful in sex estimation involved in human identification of Indians.
(J Forensic Odontostomatol 2019;37;2:45-50