The need to identify bodies that are found as a result of disappearances with a diversity of causes, illegal burials and massive disasters, represent a wide percentage of dentistry practice on forensic research. The following study determined the performance of Barr Body Test, in fibroblasts of healthy teeth, under different conditions of burial (in vitro) with variations in pH, humidity and salinity in terms of general accuracy and sensitivity for men and women. Analyzed sample considered 47 dental pulps, taken from teeth under burial conditions during a period of a month. From dental pulps samples, 265 histological cuts valid for this study, were obtained, which were observed with an optical microscope under conventional H/E staining. Results showed a 98.9% of well-diagnosed cases, which correspond to the overall accuracy of the method. Sensitivity for men was 97.5% and 100% for women, over the analyzed sample. In low humidity conditions, 3 samples of badly diagnosed cases in men were observed, with a group accuracy of a 90%, with a sensitivity of 25% for men and 100% for women. The present study establishes that based on these results, the performance of Barr Body Test in fibroblasts, proposed for healthy pulp teeth, is not affected by burial conditions in terms of pH (acid-alkaline), salinity (high-low) and high humidity.
SANDOVAL, C.; NUÑEZ, M. & ROA, I. Dental pulp fibroblast and sex determination in controlled burial conditions. Int. J. Morphol., 32(2):537-541, 2014.
