RT Journal Article
T1 Spectrophotometric color measurement to assess temperature of exposure  in cortical and medullar of heated human bones: a preliminary study
A1 Rubio-Lamia, Leticia Olga
A1 Díaz-Vico, Ramona
A1 Smith-Fernández, Inés María
A1 Smith-Fernández, José Aníbal
A1 Suárez-Pérez, Juan
A1 Martín-de-las-Heras, Stella
A1 Santos-Amaya, Ignacio Miguel
K1 Huesos
AB Heated-bone color changes may provide information about temperature of exposure, with interest for anthropologists and forensic experts. The aim of this study was to assess heat-induced color changes by spectrophotometry in cortical and medullar human bones heated at different temperatures and times. CIELAB (International Commission on Illumination-LAB) color parameters (L*, a*, and b*) and whiteness (WI) and yellowness (YI) indexes were obtained by spectrophotometry in the cortical and medullar zones of 36 bone sections exposed at 200, 400, 600, and 800 °C for 30 and 60 min. The accuracy of color-based temperature estimations was evaluated by Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis. Chromaticity a* showed the best significant discrimination power with the area under the ROC curve (AUC) values ranged from 0.9 to 1.0 in cortical zones and 0.7 to 1.0 in medullar zones for all temperatures of exposures and both time of exposures. Chromaticity b*, and WI and YI indexes showed an AUC of 1.0 at 400, 600, and 800 °C for 30 and 60 min in the cortical and medullar zones. The spectrophotometric color parameters provided a highly accurate estimation of the temperature of exposure to discriminate between temperatures and exposure times in the cortical and medullar zones. Spectrophotometric bone color measurement in cortical and medullar zones can be an objective and reproducible method to estimate the temperature of exposition, and it can be considered useful for forensic and anthropological purposes.
YR 2020
FD 2020
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/28679
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/28679
LA eng
NO Rubio, L.; Díaz-Vico, R.; Smith-Fernández, I.; Smith-Fernández, A.; Suárez, J.; Martin-de-las-Heras, S.; Santos, I. Spectrophotometric Color Measurement to Assess Temperature of Exposure in Cortical and Medullar Heated Human Bones: A Preliminary Study. Diagnostics 2020, 10, 979
NO This research was funded by Universidad de Málaga. J.S. (CPII17/00024) holds a ‘’Miguel Servet II’’ research contract from the National System of Health (Spain), EU-ERDF-Instituto de Salud Carlos III, and Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga (IBIMA).
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 20 ene 2026