Browsing by Author "Valencia Martínez, Natalia Paola"

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    Estimación de edad a partir del análisis de la superficie esternal de la cuarta costilla y de la sínfisis púbica en una población masculina contemporánea de morgue de la ciudad de Bucaramanga
    (UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA, 2005) Valencia Martínez, Natalia Paola; Rodríguez Cuenca, José Vicente
    Study carried out at the morgue of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences in Bucaramanga in 2001, using fourth ribs and pubic symphyses from 120 adult males. The aim was to assess, in a Colombian population, the applicability of international age-estimation methods that rely on morphologic changes of the sternal end of the fourth rib (Loth and Iscan, 1989) and of the pubic symphysis (Todd, McKern-Stewart, Gilbert-McKern, Meindl et al. and Suchey-Brooks). Macroscopic analysis was used to assign metamorphic phases and the estimated ages were compared with the chronological ages from autopsy records. The sample showed a reasonable fit to the age ranges described by Loth and Iscan, with approximately three quarters of cases correctly classified. The broad age intervals proposed by Suchey and Brooks, particularly for middle and older adults, included most individuals and yielded a rate of correct estimations above ninety percent. The study concludes that these methods provide useful guidelines for Colombian forensic practice, while emphasising the need to generate local standards and to combine several skeletal indicators in order to minimise error in adult age estimation.