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Identification from Chest X‐Rays: Reliability of Bone Density Patterns of the Humerus *
Author(s) -
Ciaffi Romina,
De Angelis Danilo,
Gherardini Pier Federico,
Arcudi Giovanni,
Nessi Renato,
Cornalba Gian Paolo,
Grandi Marco,
Cattaneo Cristina
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2009.01297.x
Subject(s) - radiogram , humerus , radiography , identification (biology) , reliability (semiconductor) , orthodontics , computer science , medicine , anatomy , biology , radiology , physics , power (physics) , botany , quantum mechanics
A critical review of Kahana and Hiss’ study on identification from bone trabecular pattern and a test of their method conducted on the humerus are presented. Bone trabecular pattern was studied through the generation of a numerical file representing the gray scale. Using the correlation coefficient, several pairwise comparisons between numerical files were performed. The test gave nearly 30% of incorrect exclusions (the method did not recognize couples of radiographs belonging to the same subject) and 50% of misidentifications (the method recognized couples of radiographs belonging to different subjects, as belonging to the same subject); therefore, this research shows that at the present time, it is not possible to safely quantify identification through bone density patterns, of the proximal humerus taken from thoracic X‐rays. Thus, an “easy”—but dangerous—use of trabecular density patterns on this specific type of radiogram as an identification method should be currently avoided.