Forensic age assessment of living adolescents and young adults at the Institute of Legal Medicine, Münster, from 2009 to 2018.

Due to high migration inflows to Europe, forensic age assessment of living persons has clearly gained importance. If there is a legal justification for X-ray examinations without a medical indication, the Study Group on Forensic Age Diagnostics (AGFAD) recommends the combination of a physical examination with anamnesis, an X-ray examination of the hand and a dental examination with evaluation of an orthopantomogram for age assessments of adolescents and young adults. If the development of the hand skeleton has been completed, an additional CT examination of the clavicles is to be performed. To demonstrate the outcome of forensic age assessments according to AGFAD recommendations with regard to migrants of doubtful minority declaration, this study analyzes the expert reports carried out at the Institute of Legal Medicine, Münster, from 2009 to 2018. A total of 597 age assessments were performed during the study period. A total of 227 age assessments were issued on behalf of youth welfare offices in the legal area of social law, 282 in family law proceedings, 76 in criminal proceedings, and 12 age assessments in immigration law proceedings. In 211 out of 597 cases, the stated age was compatible with the findings of the age assessment. In the remaining 386 cases, the average difference between the stated age and the minimum age was 1.9 years. The average difference between stated age and most probable age was 5.1 years. Of the 521 age assessments carried out outside criminal proceedings, 197 unaccompanied minors with questionable age minority (37.8%) have reached the age of majority beyond doubt. A total of 388 unaccompanied minors (74.5%) have most probably reached the age of majority. Forensic age assessments with the AGFAD methodology make an important contribution to legal certainty, the welfare of the child, and the fair distribution of resources.

Mechanical response of cervical vertebral endplates to axial loading.

OBJECTIVE: After anterior cervical discectomy the implantation of a spacer is common practice. The majority of these spacers are trapezoid titanium cages. During the development of a height-adjustable cervical implant we needed to establish the testing limits for this device. A known phenomenon is subsidence of the cage into the vertebral endplates, which leads to a decrease in height and/or angulation of the cervical spinal segment. In contrast to the thoracic and lumbar spines, there are only limited data concerning the load-bearing ability of cervical endplates. The aim of our investigation was to obtain these data. METHODS: Bone density of 16 cervical vertebrae was estimated by quantitative computed tomography. After embedding of the vertebrae into PMMA, each endplate was slowly compressed until failure using a metal indenter resembling the form of a newly developed cervical implant. A fixed protocol with increasing loading cycles was followed. Endpoint was breakage of the endplate as established by failure to resist the increasing loading forces produced by the testing machine. RESULTS: The mean bone density of the 16 cervical vertebrae was 204 with a standard deviation of 52 mg Ca-HA/mL (range 130-281). The endplates failed with a mean loading of 1084 N +/- 314 (range 340-1550 N). The maximum load correlates with the bone density (R2 = 0.7347). With the 97.79 mm2 load bearing surface of the cage we calculate a mean cervical endplate break strength of 10.47 MPa and a 95 % confidence interval of 12.66-9.51 MPa. An initial settling produced by resting of the anchoring teeth in the cervical endplates was observed in 8 vertebrae at a load of 113 N (range 50-250 N). CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to the thoracic and lumbar spines, cervical endplates show a lower resistance against axial forces. The data are important to understand postoperative cage subsidence and to establish testing limits for the development of new implant designs.