Virginia Research Day 2025

Medical Student Research Biomedical

09 Correlating Age and Sex with Mineralization of the Thyroid Cartilage: A Computed Tomography Study

Rebecca Cistulli; Alexandra Reagan; Ashley Borseth; Sohailla Noor; Aaron Beger Corresponding author: rcistulli@vcom.edu

Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine - Virginia Campus

The human larynx (i.e. “voice box”) is protected and supported by a cartilaginous skeleton. The thyroid cartilage is the largest, most anterior component, comprised of two lamellae that fuse in the midline, giving a shield-like appearance. It is primarily composed of hyaline cartilage that typically undergoes some degree of mineralization across the lifespan. Prior studies have aimed to quantify the degree of mineralization to determine its potential as a biomarker for age and sex estimation for forensic, anthropological, and sociopolitical contexts, though a lack of standardized methodology and small sample sizes have yielded disparate results. To address these shortcomings, de-identified computed tomography (CT) scans provided by the New Mexico Decedent Image Database were obtained and imported into 3D slicer software for analysis. The thyroid cartilage was successfully segmented in 97/100 subjects (49 males,

48 females; ages 18-97 years [mean=55.21 years]). Voxels were considered to represent mineralized tissue if they had a density of 400 Hounsfield units or greater, and volume of mineralized thyroid cartilage was subsequently calculated in 3D slicer. The relationship of mineralized volume with age was determined using Pearson’s correlation, differences between males and females was determined using independent samples t-test, and the extent to which mineralized volume of the thyroid cartilage differs across decades of life was determined using one way ANOVA, with significance set at the .05 alpha level. Pearson’s correlation revealed a weak positive correlation between volume of mineralized thyroid cartilage and age (R=0.17, p=.09), though this became a slightly stronger correlation when considering only up until the age of 80 (R=0.37, p<.001). The volume of mineralized thyroid cartilage in males

(  =1,782.58mm 3 ) was found to be significantly greater than females (  =863.21mm 3 ) (p<.001). ANOVA revealed a significant difference in the mean mineralized volume across decades of life (p=.03), with post-hoc Tukey test revealing the significance to be between those in their 20s (  =600.58mm 3 ) and 60s (  =1768.98mm 3 ) (p=.04). These results suggest that the mineralized content of the thyroid cartilage is a weak predictor of age and becomes particularly weak beyond the age of 80, and it may have greater benefit in determining the sex of an individual. Future studies would be strengthened by employing a larger sample size and investigation of individuals from regions beyond the Southwest United States. This study was reviewed and approved by VCOM IRB (record #2024-215).

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