 We present L4-based stature estimation equations for Northern Finns  In the pooled-sex sample, the most accurate equation yielded an error of 5.635 cm  Among men and women, the lowest errors were 5.125 and 4.640 cm, respectively  We suggest that L4 dimensions may be used to estimate stature relatively accurately ABSTRACT Background: Accurate stature estimation plays an essential role in the identification of unknown deceased individuals. For cases in which conventional methods of stature estimation are not applicable, we studied the stature estimation potential of the fourth lumbar vertebra (L4) among a large living sample of

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As modern populations are living longer, age-related health issues have become more common. One growing concern is the age-related bone density loss that increases the individual's risk for fractures, which unfortunately seems to disproportionately afflict women. These fractures are not only detrimental to the individuals' lives but also come with a great economic burden to the societies. Although age-related bone loss is a normal phenomenon, studies on archaeological individuals have demonstrated that the pattern how this occurs has experienced changes due to our changing lifestyles. Hence, to add to our understanding of secular trends in age-related bone loss, we studied age-and sex-related differences in vertebral and femoral bone densities of a recent past population of late 19 th and early 20 th century Americans. We used a sample of 114 individuals (55 males, 59 females) from the Robert J. Terry Anatomical Skeletal Collection. Peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) was used to scan the dry bones. We took one scan from the 4 th lumbar vertebra and three scans from the femur. The associations between the age, sex and bone density were analyzed. We were able to detect age-related bone loss in both vertebra and femur. It was observed that men tended to lose more bone density on the vertebra, whereas bone loss in women was more pronounced in the femur. We speculate that differences to modern and earlier archaeological populations are related to the major lifestyle differences between the periods.

Vertebral fractures and other back problems represent a major, increasing worldwide health problem. this has increased the need to better understand the reasons behind this phenomenon. in addition to a reduction in bone mineral density and overall size of the vertebral body, research has indicated a possible association between the shape of the endplate and spinal disorders. As one previous study has shown changes in vertebral body dimensions between contemporary people and their medieval counterparts, we wanted to examine the potential temporal trends in vertebral size and dimensions in finnish samples of archaeological and contemporary individuals. to conduct this study, we utilized three archaeological populations from the 16 th -19 th century and clinical materials from two populationbased Finnish birth cohorts. As the average height of people has increased greatly since the first time period, we also height-adjusted the dimensions to provide a clearer picture of the dimensional changes that have occurred in the later temporal group. our results were in agreement with those of the earlier study. the archaeological samples had a larger vertebral size than the contemporary population when height was adjusted for. Vertebral mediolateral width in particular had decreased, and the shape of the vertebral body had changed.Back problems, particularly low back pain, have become major health issues across the world 1-3 . The 2010 Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) study found low back pain to be the greatest contributor to global disability in over half of the regions it studied. For all regions, it ranked in the top four leading causes of years lived with disability (calculated as YLDs) 2,4 . Hoy et al. 3 estimated the global prevalence of activity-limiting low back pain that lasted longer than one day to be 11.9 ± 2.0% and the one-month prevalence to be 23.2 ± 2.9%. Back problems are frequent also in Finland, where over 40% of men and women report having experienced back pain in the last 30 days 5 . The 2017 GBD study as well ranked low back pain as the top contributor to years lived with disability in Finland, representing 10.6% of total YLDs 6 .As back pain often accompanies different spinal ailments such as osteoporotic fractures and disc herniation, which themselves are growing problems in modern sedentary societies, finding the risk factors that contribute to them has become an important area of study. A number of studies have found that in addition to bone density, the size and shape of the vertebral body plays an important role in the vertebrae's strength and biomechanics. For example, smaller vertebral bodies or cross-sectional areas have been found to correlate with osteoporotic fractures 7-10 . Smaller bones appear to experience greater stress during axial compression and further greater stress when exposed to bending forces 7,11 . Single dimensions of vertebral bodies have also shown to impact facture risk. Both greater anterior-posterior depth and smaller mediolateral width has been connected to an increased...

Case study on the bone density pattern of subaxial vertebral column in African apes. Introduction African apes have been noted to experience fewer back ailments than humans and to have higher vertebral bone density. Yet, research on the subject is quite limited and has usually included only one or few vertebrae. However, to understand vertebral column as whole and how posture and locomotion might have affected it, we need to know how bone density varies between adjacent vertebrae. Materials and Methods Bone density in the vertebral body was measured for all subaxial vertebrae of five specimens including two Pan troglodytes (1 male and 1 female) and three Gorilla gorilla (2 males and 1 female) using peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT). Results The results tentatively indicated differences between species, especially in the trabecular density of the cervical segment and support the need for further studies on this subject.