Estimation of Age from Sternal End of Fourth Rib in Western Rajasthan Population: A Microscopic Study

Estimating the age at death in the adult skeleton is problematic owing to the biological variability in age indictors and the differential skeletal response to environmental factors over an individual’s life. Determination of age and sex play a pivotal role in identification of unknown skeletal remains. Age estimation from the recovered bones has been studied and analyzed by many workers. In the present study the sternal end of fourth ribs were used for determination of age by microscopic study. Currently there are different parameters available to determine the age of a person like study of teeth, ossification of bones and other ancillary data, but the accurate reliability of these measures is only limited to a particular age group i.e. 25± 5 years. For the age beyond this, many workers in different parts of the world have done their studies to accurately determine the age of a person from the skeleton. A random study of 100 cases for age determination from sternal ends of the ribs was carried out in the Department of Anatomy, SPMC, Bikaner. The aim of the study was to determine the age after death with minimal error. ABSTRACT :