| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000)
Fiscal Year 1999: ¥400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000)
Fiscal Year 1998: ¥2,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,600,000)
|
|---|
| Research Abstract |
It is important to determine the age of an unknown body at death in physical and forensic anthropotogy. In general, age is estimated using the dental evidence such as tooth eruption and completion of dental root. However, these evidence is available for the age under 20 years olds. Over 20 years of age, the age-related change features of the bone are usually used. One of them is the internal structure, especially trabecular bone density. In the past studies, this feature was observed using two dimensional soft X-ray images taken from the thin sliced bone which was embedded in resin. But this method requires long time to prepare the specimens. Futhermore, it contains other problems such as the destruction of the specimen and one way observaion of the structure. In this study, a new Micro-CT system was developed to overcome these problems and was applied to observe the trabecular bone density. The reconstructed 3D images obtained by this system showed that they had enough quality for studing the relationship hetween the status of trabecular bone density and the age. Then, to look for the most reliable region for age estimation, the mandible and the third lumber vertebra were observed. In the result,the internal structure of the madible was affected by mechanical factor rather than aging. This result indicates that the lumber vertebra is more suitable for age estimation. Then the lumber vertebra obtained from each age group was observed using the 3D images. The volume percentage of the trabecular bone occupied in standard volum showed that 32%(less than 10), 32.7%(teens), 27.8%(20's), 14.1%(30's), 15.3%(40's), 17.0%(50's), and 4.8%(70's), respectively. The reason why the obvious correlation between the status of the trabecular bone and age was not observed seemed to be a small number of the specimen in each age group.
|
