Ömer Utku ERZENGİN, Alp Alper ŞAFAK, Zerrin ERKOL, Burhan YAZICI, Bora BÜKEN, Erhan BÜKEN

Is the Tanner–Whitehouse (TW3) method sufficiently reliable for forensic age determination of Turkish children?

Amaç: Bu çalışmada amaç Tanner- Whitehouse 3 (TW3) metodunun, adli tıbbi yaş tayininde Türk çocukları için kesinliğinin saptanmasıdır.Yöntem ve gereç: 324 çocuğun planlı olarak çekilen el ve bilek grafileri değerlendirildi. Ortalama kronolojik yaş (CA) her bir cinsiyete ve her bir yaş grubuna göre farklılıklar saptanarak, TW3 metoduna göre elde edilen kemik yaşı ile karşılaştırıldı. Farkların saptanmasında ve CA ve iskelet yaşı (BA) arasındaki ilişkinin modellenmesinde paired sample t test, Pearson korelasyon and regresyon analizi kullanıldı. Analizler R-project ortamında gerçekleştirildi.Bulgular: Ortalama CA ve BA arasındaki farklar istatistiksel olarak anlamlı ve her iki cinsiyette CA ve BA arasında yüksek korelasyon vardı. Kızlarda hiç bir yaş grubu için P değeri anlamlı değilken, erkeklerde 13 ve 14 yaşlarda anlamlıydı. Her bir cinsiyet için dağılım formülleri çıkarıldı. Ülke çapında yapılacak çalışmaların sonuçlarına göre yapılandırılacak yeni bir atlas yayınlanana kadar TW3 atlasının adli yaş tayininde Türk çocukları için kullanılabileceği düşünülmektedir.Sonuç: Bölgemizde

Türk çocuklarında adli tibbi yaş tayini için “Tanner-Whitehouse 3 (TW 3)” atlasının kullanımı yeterince güvenli mi?

Abstract: The purpose of our study was to determine the accuracy of Tanner-Whitehouse 3 (TW3-RUS) bone age (BA) assessments for forensic age estimations of Turkish children. Materials and methods: Plain radiographs of left hands and wrists of 324 children were evaluated. Mean chronological age (CA) was compared with mean bone age (BA) according to the TW3 atlas for each sex, and differences by age group were determined. Pearson correlation coefficients and cubic regression were used to determine the differences and model the relationships between mean BA and CA. Statistical analyses were carried out using R-project. Results: The difference between the mean CA and the mean BA was statistically significant, and there was a high correlation between them for both sexes. No P values were statistically significant for any age group for girls but P values were statistically significant at 13 and 14 years for boys. The dispersion formula was determined for each sex. Conclusion: We propose that this atlas can be used for Turkish children, until a new atlas that has been distributed and formed according to the results of multiple studies made throughout the country.

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