Estimation of stature from dimensions of the fourth lumbar vertebra in contemporary middle-aged Finns

摘要

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 representative contemporary Finns. We also generated stature estimation equations for the middle- aged Finnish population.