COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHIC EVALUATION OF CRANIOFACIAL PARAMETERS FOR SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN SOUTH INDIANS

Abstract

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Background. Determination of sex from bony elements is the fundamental step to human virtue. Direct assessment of the bones is not always most appropriate or practical. Aim. The aim of our study was to examine the reliability of cranial measurements for sex differences in computed tomography head scan records of adult live subjects to the highest possible percentage and to develop discriminant function equations. Material and Methods. Seventy head computed tomography records were taken and 16 parameters were measured using RadiAnt DICOM viewer software. The data was analyzed using SPSS software. Results and Discussion. The classification ac curacy obtained by multivariate analysis of all 16 variables was 97.1%, multivariate analysis of 9 most significant variables was 91.4% and by stepwise was 92.9% and that by univariate analysis for bizygomatic breadth, orbital breadth, basion-bregma height and inter-orbital breadth was 81.4, 74.3, 72.9 and 70%, respectively. Conclusions. Multivariate analysis gave the highest classification accuracy and bizygomatic breadth, orbital breadth, basion-bregma height and inter-orbital breadth were the most dimorphic variables in our study population and several other populations, and thereby should always be considered in the sex determination of humans.