The effect of cancer on pubic symphysis aging using computed tomography scans
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Abstract
The present research examined the effects of cancer on age estimation using computed tomography scans of the pubic symphysis. Cancer and subsequent cancer treatments have been found to cause osteoporosis from the cancer tumors themselves and radiation therapies. The sex organs of both females and males play a key part in regulating bone mineral density (BMD) through the production of estrogen and testosterone. Computed tomography (CT) scans of 307 individuals were collected from the New Mexico Descendent Image Database (NMDID), and the Suchey-Brooks method of pubic symphysis aging was applied to each CT scan. An individual was aged correctly if their actual age fell within the 95-percentile reported in the Suchey-Brooks method. The author hypothesized that the Suchey-Brooks method, which was developed on a sample of relatively healthy individuals, will not be accurate on individuals with a history of cancer due to the BMD loss. A Mann-Whitney U Test was used to determine a significance between the male cancer and control groups and female cancer and control groups and a Kruskal-Wallis H test with a Bonferroni post hoc test was used to analyze the data. A statistical significance was found between three compared groups: male cancer and female cancer, male cancer and female control, and male control and female control. A Cohen’s kappa was run on the intra-observer groups and the results suggested a moderate amount of reliability for each group.
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Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International