One of the options for improving the accuracy of diagnosing the age of an unidentified person is to expand the range of objects and methods used for research. The bones of the skeleton are traditional for these purposes. The dynamics of ossification of laryngeal cartilage has not been sufficiently studied.

Purpose. To determine the relationship between the area of laryngeal cartilage ossification sites and age and to evaluate the possibility of using the dynamics of their ossification as an age marker for forensic identification of an individual.

Material and methods. The material for the study was laryngeal cartilage (scooped and ring-shaped) from 100 male corpses, aged from 15 to 93 years. The paper uses methods of visual assessment, radiological, quantitative, and statistical analysis.

Results. With increasing age, the ratio of bone and cartilage tissue in аrytenoid сartilage and сricoid cartilage changes, this is expressed in an increase in the area of bone and a decrease in the proportion of cartilage tissue. Analysis of the results showed that there is a strong direct relationship between the percentage of bone tissue in the сricoid cartilage and аrytenoid сartilage sample on the x-ray and age (r=0.82, r=0.8). The obtained results demonstrated that ossification of cartilage structures has a certain sequence, and a reliable relationship between age and the ossification area of the studied laryngeal structures was determined.

Conclusion. Radiographic examination of laryngeal cartilage and assessment of laryngeal ossification can be used as an Express method of preliminary age diagnostics for identification of the unknown person.