Intra- and interobserver concordance in scoring Harris lines: A test on bone sections and radiographs

Little attention has been devoted to assessing the reproducibility of (paleo)pathological observations. Harris lines (HL) are among the markers most used to determine chronology of stresses suffered during growth. Nevertheless, their scoring entails remarkable methodological difficulty. Bone sections (S) and radiographs (R) of 29 adult tibiae of archeological provenance (medieval) were scored for HL by five observers. At regular intervals of time, each observer gave two independent counts on both series. Results show a) a substantial interobserver disagreement of HL estimates for both sectional and radiographic records, and b) a high level of intraobserver error. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

The elongation of the human cervical vertebral column

Cervical vertebral elongation has been studied using serial cephalometric radiographs of 32 children examined regularly from 0.25 to 17 years. Mean vertebral body heights increased rapidly to about 2.5 years and then decelerated except for a spurt at about the age of peak height velocity. There were only small sex differences in vertebral body elongation to 12 years. From then to 15 years, the vertebral body heights in the girls exceeded those in the boys; later this sex difference was reversed. There was no pubertal spurt in disc elongation. The correlation coefficients were negative between vertebral body heights and the heights of adjoining intervertebral discs, e.g., body C3 and disc C3–4, but those between body heights or between disc heights were positive. The heights of adjacent cervical vertebral bodies were correlated more highly than the heights of non-adjacent bodies. There was a similar pattern of differences between correlation coefficients for the heights of adjacent and non-adjacent intervertebral discs.     

Cone-shaped epiphyses in Japanese children

Cone-shaped epiphyses (CSE) are reported in left-hand radiographs of a sample of 1,399 otherwise normal Japanese children aged 5–11 years. CSE occurred in only three centers: distal thumb, mid-index finger, and mid-fifth finger. The overall frequency of 23% shows a female bias (32% to 16%), which disappears when mid-5 cones are excluded. Chi-squared analyses show significant gender bias for mid-5 cones alone or in combination with the other phalanges, and show significant center associations: CSE in distal-1 and/or mid-2 are more common in association with mid-5 cones than they are without mid-5 cones. The CSE female bias in mid-5 is essentially unchanged across age-cohorts when bone-age is controlled for precocity, and no significant trends in CSE frequency with age are noted for either gender.     

Forty-five Northern Irish families: a cephalometric radiographic study

The individual bones that are identifiable from lateral skull radiographs have been analysed for the parents and growing children of 45 families. There were at least four children in each family and altogether there were 95 sons and 102 daughters. The youngest child was not less than seven years of age. Traced outlines were made of the bones and 24 linear and angular measurements were made; the raw data were transformed into scores to overcome differences due to age and sex. Analyses of variance of within and between families showed that for all the variables, the scores for persons in different families were significantly less similar, (P < 0.001), than scores to be found within families. Correlations were then computed for each variable between the mothers and fathers, the mothers and sons, the mothers and daughters, the fathers and sons, the fathers and daughters, brothers and sisters, paired brothers and paired sisters. It was found that there were no statistically significant correlations between the mothers and fathers, but for all the other combinations that were examined there were many correlations significant at a 0.1% and 1.0% level.     

Thickness of the normal skull in the American Blacks and Whites.

Normal skull thickness has been measured in a general hospital population of 300 blacks and 200 whites in America. In both groups, there is a rapid increase in skull thickness during the first two decades of life, followed by a small uniform increase reaching a peak in the fifth and sixth decades. The sex differences are variable, but in certain age groups the females in both races have significatly thicker parietal and occipital bones than their male counterpart. The frontal bone is thicker in the white male than in the black, and the parietooccipital thicker in the blacks than in the whites. Some suggestions are offered to explain the sex and racial difference noted.     

A radiographic technique of interest to physical anthropologists

A radiographic technique for processing a large number of human crania was developed to aid in the diagnosis of porotic hyperostosis in a large skeletal population. These images are made directly onto photographic paper, thereby reducing costs and increasing the rate of processing. The technique is especially well suited for radiographing human skeletal material and gives excellent diagnostic image quality.     

Growth standards for the tibia and radius in children aged one month through eighteen years

Standards for the growth of the tibia and the radius are presented for normal males and females ages one month through 18 years. Using radiographs of subjects from the Fels Research Institute for the Study of Human Development longitudinal program, means and standard deviations for bone length, interval increments and annual increments were determined. Males and females show little difference in growth of the tibia until adolescence while statistically significant differences are found at nearly all ages in the radius. The adolescent growth spurt occurs in the male from 12–15 years and in the female from 9–12 years.     

Histological study on the chronology of the developing dentition in gorilla and orangutan

The single previous study on tooth development in great apes (Dean and Wood: Folia Primatol. (Basel) 36:111–127, 1981) is of limited value because it is based on cross-sectional radiographic data. This study considers problems in defining stages of tooth development in radiographs of developing ape dentitions and provides data on tooth chronology in Pongo pygmaeus and Gorilla gorilla by using histological methods of analysis. Crown formation times were estimated in individual teeth, and an overall chronology of dental development was found by registering teeth forming at the same time by using incremental growth lines. The earlier radiographic study correctly identified the molar and second premolar chronology and sequence in great apes, but significantly underestimated crown formation times in incisors, first premolars, and canine teeth in particular. Ape anterior tooth crowns take longer to form than the equivalent human teeth, but the overall dental developmental period in great apes is substantially shorter than in humans. Gorilla root extension rates appear to be fast, up to approximately 13 μm/day. This rapid root growth, associated with early tooth eruption, appears to be the developmental basis for the observed differences in timing between developing dentitions in great apes and humans.     

ROC analysis of observer-response subjective rating data--application to periodontal radiograph assessment

Many physical anthropological studies require that an observer or device discriminate between states that can be easily confused. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis currently offers the best method for determining the accuracy of such choices, particularly for small sample sizes. Although ROC analysis is widely accepted in psychophysical and biomedical testing, its use in anthropological studies has not been reported. ROC analysis is used here to determine the usefulness of enhanced dental radiographs to assess vertical alveolar bone defects for quantitative studies of human variation with regard to periodontal disease. The presence or absence of vertical-bony defects (truth) for 75 human skulls was established by the consensus of two trained observers. Dental bitewing-radiographs were taken of the alveolar processes, the radiographs digitized, and the brightness and contrast of the digital images enhanced. The two observers who established truth then rated 1) plain bitewing radiographs, 2) unenhanced digital images of bitewings, and 3) enhanced digital images of bitewings for vertical bony defects. The rating scale varied from 1 (vertical defect definitely or almost definitely present) to 5 (definitely or almost definitely absent). ROC analysis was used to compared the diagnostic value of the 3 imaging modalities. All modalities had nearly identical diagnostic performance, measured as Az values (areas beneath ROC curves) that were less than 0.80, which indicates only moderate usefulness. It is concluded that enhancement does not increase success in vertical-bony-defect diagnosis from digital dental radiographs processed in this manner. Moreover, it is suggested that conventional bitewing radiographs may be unsuitable for accurate quantification of such defects.