Estimation of Age-at-Death Using Cortical Bone Histomorphometry of the Rib and Femur: A Validation Study on a British Population

Abstract

Histomorphometry constitutes a valuable tool for age estimation. Histological interpopulation variability has been shown to affect the accuracy of age estimation techniques and therefore validation studies are required to test the accuracy of the pre-existing methodologies. The present research constitutes a validation study of widely known histological methods on the sixth rib and the femoral midshaft of a 19th century British population originating from Blackburn, England. An evaluation of the histomorphometric features of eleven ribs and five femora was performed and used to test the accuracy of selected methods. Results indicated that osteon area and circularity were the only histomorphometric variables that presented significant interpopulation variability. Cho et al.’s method for the ribs and the average value produced using Kerley and Ubelaker’s method for intact osteon and percentage of lamellar bone equations for femur were considered the only reliable markers for estimating the age on the Blackburn sample. In the case of old individuals, Goliath et al.’s method provided more satisfactory results. Overall, the present study provides evidence on the applicability of the aging histomorphometric methods on a British sample and highlights the limitations of applying histomorphometric methods developed on different reference populations than the one under investigation.

A Review of Histological Techniques for Differentiating Human Bone from Animal Bone

“…Analysis is necessary because a number of extrinsic factors, including age and sex, can cause variations in bone histomorphometry. Since the year 1965, several age-at-death estimation techniques have been developed using histomorphometry in human bone due to the well-established link between age and bone microstructure [ 54 ]. Although aging changes the size and form of Haversian systems, it additionally boosts their number [ 55 ].…”

Age‐dependent change and intraskeletal variability in secondary osteons of elderly Australians

“…Remodelling does not occur uniformly throughout the skeleton, so age estimation methods are developed on specific bones, most commonly the femur and the rib (Crowder & Dominguez, 2013 ; Gocha et al., 2019 ). Varying rates of remodelling are reported not only between different bones of an individual skeleton (Cole et al., 2022 ; Karydi et al., 2022 ) but also within different regions of a bone (Chan et al., 2007 ; Dominguez et al., 2020 ; Gocha & Agnew, 2016 ) depending on biomechanical loading regimes and metabolic activity. Increasing knowledge of intraskeletal histomorphometric variation is critical to improving accuracy in age‐at‐death estimation, particularly in older adults (Stout & Crowder, 2012 ).…”