Abstract

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in forensic sciences about forensic age and sex estimation in living subjects by means of radiology. Costal cartilage bridges, the sternum and the ribs play a key role in the biomechanics of the chest, and is known to be calcified in local regions with age. This study aims at finding out the patterns of costal cartilage calcification in relation to sex and age, and was conducted on digital thorax X-rays to test the usefulness of some radiological changes in the costal cartilage. A descriptive cross sectional study of 1371 radiographs of chest plates were collected from a Diagnostic Medical Center (DMC) in Aden city / Yemen, during the period January 2017 to December 2018, all data were analyzed for their calcification patterns according to the methods of McCormick et al. The incidence of calcification increased with the advancement of age and the earliest appearance of calcification in costal cartilage was seen at 18-19 years in both sexes but more significantly in females. The tendency of central calcification of cartilage was displayed in females, while the peripheral calcification preferred in males, and the mixed calcification seen in both sexes but more in males. It is safe to conclude that different patterns of calcification at rib cartilage observed in digital radiographs are sex specific, that is to say male subjects predominantly show peripheral pattern and female subjects predominantly show central pattern. Calcification of costal cartilage starts at the age of 18-19 years in both sexes and increases with age.