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Frontal Sinus Development and Juvenile Age Estimation
Author(s) -
Moore Kaitlin,
Ross Ann
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the anatomical record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.678
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1932-8494
pISSN - 1932-8486
DOI - 10.1002/ar.23614
Subject(s) - frontal sinus , juvenile , logistic regression , bone age , developmental age , analysis of variance , age groups , demography , medicine , anatomy , psychology , developmental psychology , biology , genetics , sociology
Assessment of development is an important component of age estimation in juveniles. One area that has not been fully investigated as a possible aging method is the development of the frontal sinus. The frontal sinuses form when the ectocranial table of the frontal bone separates from the endocranial table forming an air pocket in the bone. The endocranial table ceases growth with the brain, while the ectocranial table is displaced anteriorly as the facial bones continue growth. In order to examine growth and the utility of the frontal sinuses for age estimation, 392 radiographs were examined (♀=159 and ♂=233) from the Juvenile Radiograph Database at North Carolina State University and the Patricia Database from Mercyhurst University. The sample included individuals who ranged in age from 0 to 18 years. Anterior view (or AP) radiographs were examined and were grouped based upon the presence or absence of the frontal sinus. Individuals were grouped into four age categories. A one‐way ANOVA was performed to test whether developmental phase was related to age. Results from the ANOVA show that developmental phase is significantly related to age ( P <.0001). An ordinal logistic regression was conducted to examine whether developmental phase could be used to predict age. The results of the logistic regression suggest that developmental phase is an accurate indicator of age ( P <.0001, df = 1, Chi‐Squared = 537.2428); however, the age ranges can be quite wide and should be utilized alongside other established methods of age estimation. Anat Rec, 300:1609–1617, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.