Hand Bones

A fully sequenced high-quality genome has revealed in 2010 the existence of a human population in Asia, the
Denisovans, related to and contemporaneous with Neanderthals. Only five skeletal remains are known from
Denisovans, mostly molars; the proximal fragment of a fifth finger phalanx used to generate the genome,
however, was too incomplete to yield useful morphological information. Here, we demonstrate through ancient
DNA analysis that a distal fragment of a fifth finger phalanx from the Denisova Cave is the larger, missing part
of this phalanx. Our morphometric analysis shows that its dimensions and shape are within the variability of
Homo sapiens and distinct from the Neanderthal fifth finger phalanges. Thus, unlike Denisovan molars, which
display archaic characteristics not found in modern humans, the only morphologically informative Denisovan
postcranial bone identified to date is suggested here to be plesiomorphic and shared between Denisovans and
modern humans.

The aim of this study was to establish the validity of a new method for evaluating skeletal maturation by assessing the 3rd and 4th cervical vertebrae seen in the cephalometric radiograph. This study consisted of a sample of 50 patients in the age group of 8 to 14 years of age. Chronologically, they were divided into six groups, based on the age consisting of a minimum of six to a maximum of 10 subjects. All the patients included in the study were females. The selected subjects were clinically examined and then age and date of birth of the patient in years and months was noted. Then lateral cephalograms and hand-wrist radiographs of the patient were taken on the same day with good clarity and contrast. The results suggested that cervical vertebral bone age on cephalometric radiographs calculated with this method is as reliable at estimating bone age as is the Tanner-Whitehouse 3 (TW3) method on hand-wrist radiographs. By determining the cervical vertebral bone age, skeletal maturity...

Abstract
Introduction In forensic practice, there is a growing need for accurate methods of age estimation, especially in the cases of young individuals of unknown age. Age can be estimated through somatic features that are universally considered asso- ciated with chronological age. Unfortunately, these features do not always coincide with the real chronological age: for these reasons that age determination is often very difficult. Our aim is to evaluate accuracy of skeletal age estimation using Tomei’s MRI method in subjects between 12 and 19 years old for forensic purposes.
Material and methods Two investigators analyzed MRI im- ages of the left hand and wrist of 77 male and 74 female caucasian subjects, without chronic diseases or developmental
S. Serinelli (*) : E. Marinelli
Department of Anatomy, Histology, Forensic Medicine and Orthopedics, BSapienza–University of Rome^,
Viale Regina Elena 336, 00161 Rome, Italy
e-mail: s.serinelli@gmail.com
V. Panebianco : M. Martino : F. Zaccagna : E. Tomei Department of Radiological Sciences, Oncology and Pathology, BSapienza–University of Rome^, Viale Regina Elena, 324, 00161 Rome, Italy
S. Battisti : R. C. Semelka
Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina, 101 Manning Drive, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA
S. Battisti
Department of Radiology, Campus Biomedico of Rome, Via Álvaro del Portillo 21, 00128 Rome, Italy
K. Rodacki
Ecomax - Centro de Diagnóstico por Imagem, RuaTiradentes, no 303 BomRetiro, CEP 89010-630 Blumenau, SC, Brazil
disorders, whose age ranged from 12 to 19 years. Skeletal maturation was determined by two operators, who analyzed all MRI images separately, in blinded fashion to the chrono- logical age. Inter-rater agreement was measured with Pearson (R2) coefficient. One of the examiners repeated the evaluation after 6 months, and intraobserver variation was analyzed. Bland–Altman plots were used to determine mean differences between skeletal and chronological age.
Results Inter-rater agreement Pearson coefficient showed a good linear correlation, respectively, 0.98 and 0.97 in males and females. Bland–Altman analysis demonstrated that the differences between chronological and skeletal age are not significant. Spearman’s correlation coefficient showed good correlation between skeletal and chronological age both in females (R2=0.96) and in males (R2=0.94).
Conclusions Our results show that MRI skeletal age is a re- producible method and has good correlation with chronolog- ical age.
Keywords Forensic . Age estimation . MRI . Children . Hand–wrist

In anthropological sciences, entheses are widely utilized as occupational stress markers. However, the reaction of entheseal surfaces to mechanical loading is not well understood. Furthermore, previous studies on entheses relied on the individuals' occupation-at-death. Past research by one of us has identified two patterns among hand entheses, proposing that they reflect two synergistic muscle groups. Here, we investigate the association between these patterns and habitual manual activity using an extensively documented skeletal sample and a three-dimensional system of quantification. The hand bones utilized belong to 45 individuals from mid-19th century Basel. These were male adults (18 to 48 years old) who were not directly related, showed no manual pathological conditions, and whose occupational activities during their lifetime were clearly documented and could be evaluated according to historical sources. The patterns of entheses were explored using principal component analy...

There are 106 bones in hands and feet but their lesions are not commonly reported. This was a retrospective study of all osteolytic lesions involving bones of the hands or feet presenting to the only tertiary referral centre of the north Indian state of Uttarakhand during the 7-year period from January 2006 to December 2012. A compilation of the various demographic, clinical, radiological and histopathological findings was made. Of the 52 lesions encountered in the 7-year record, 75% were asymptomatic. 20 (38.4%) were benign tumours, 20 (38.4%) tumour-like lesions, 9 (17.3%) inflammatory and post traumatic lesions and only 3 (5.7%) were malignant lesions. Giant cell tumour was the most common benign tumour, aneurysmal bone cyst the most common tumour-like lesion and non-specific osteomyelitis was the most common inflammatory and post-traumatic pathology. All phalangeal lesions were non-malignant and 62% were either giant cell tumours or giant cell reactions. Giant cell reaction was ...

The aim of the present study was to evaluate age- and sex-related changes in the size and shape of long hand bones in a large Chuvashian cohort using cross-sectional and longitudinal study designs. The data were gathered in 1994 (557 individuals) and 2002 (513 individuals). The latter sample included 260 individuals that were studied only during the second expedition, and 253 individuals who were previously investigated in 1994. Statistical analyses included a maximum likelihood-based model-fitting technique and a t-test comparison. We found evidence for secular trend of hand bone size in both males and females within the Chuvashian population. In males, the length and total area of the long hand bones were greater in younger individuals, but mid-shaft bone width remained almost the same in individuals born at different periods of the last century. In females, the length of the hand bones and total bone area remained unchanged in women born after 1937. However, bone mid-shaft width gradually decreased in women born after 1940. Therefore, we argue that, at least within the Chuvashian population, there is a secular trend towards a more gracile appendicular skeleton in both males and females.

In recent years, skeletal age determination has become increasingly important in criminal investigations for determining the age of living individuals. To increase diagnostic accuracy, a physical examination, an X-ray examination of the left hand, as well as a dental ...