Determining the age of the children from the cranial cranium vault fragments with the use of the modern investigative techniques

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The present study included 280 thin bone slices of the cranial vault fragments obtained from 70 children at the age of 2-3 weeks or above that and the subjects aged up to 21 years. The slices were prepared from the bone plates taken from the regions of the coronal (C2 - middle part), interparietal suture (S2 - apical and S3 - obelion parts), and occipital (L2 - middle part) sutures. The thickness of the cortical and spongy substances was measured with the use of an Olympus BX 51 microscope and an OlympusSC 30 digital camera supported by the ImageScope computer software - program. The Statistica 10 - package was used for the purpose of the step-by-step - step by step regression analysis to derive 20 multiple linear regression (MLR) equations. These equations are recommended to be used for the preliminary -indicative (up to the age of 21 years) and clarifying (for the age intervals from 1 to 1-7 years, from 7 to 14 years, and from 14 to 21 years) diagnostics of the children's age for the purpose of expertise of the fragmented cranial vault. Four MLR equations were calculated for various combinations of the features in each group. It was shown that the real verification of the children's age based on the multiple correlation coefficients was possible at the age up to 7 years. Such possibility is significantly lower within the age interval from 7 to 14 years and is practically absent at the age above 14 years. The confidence interval (±SD) of MLR equations for the age up to 1 year was calculated to be around ± 1 month and for the age from 1 to 7 years approximately ±1 year. The correction of the data obtained is possible within these intervals which may significantly increase the level of evidence of the conclusions based on them. The probable probable chronological age of the children deduced based on the results of the examination of the cranial vault fragments coincides in 68% of the cases within the range of ±SD with their biological age (Y) determined from the MLR equations. The accuracy of the method employed in the present study was verified with the use of an independent sample of 7 subjects of the known age. On the whole, the results proved to be close to the calculated ones.