A Study of Sexual Dimorphism in the Femur Among North Indians*

Abstract

Determination of sex of unknown skeleton remains is the most important step in the identification process. Racial and regional differences in the populations create and maintain specificity in their dimorphic characteristics. Moreover, considering continued secular changes in the population structure, constant revision of osteometric standards becomes mandatory. In an effort to establish osteometric standards for the femur of contemporary North Indian populations, 122 adult femora of known sex (M: 94; F: 28) were collected in the Department of Forensic Medicine, IMS, BHU, Varanasi. Eight standard parameters were measured and analyzed by discriminant function analysis using SPSS 16. The accuracy of sex prediction ranged from 70.5% to 83.6% with single variables. In stepwise analysis, epicondylar breadth, proximal breadth, and antero-posterior diameter of the lateral condyle were found to be the most discriminating variables providing an accuracy of 90.2%. The results clearly indicate the importance of the ends of femur in the determination of sex.

The Proximal Femur in Egyptian (Morphometric and Radiological Study)

“…he TDN was 7% and 8% lower in females as compared to theses of males on the right and let sides respectively. In support of the current work, many authors reported similar side diferences of theses parameters among populations from India and Brazil [1,15,16]. he mean of all these studies, were lower than theses of the present study.…”

“…he TDH was 5% lower in females as compared to that of males on the both let and right sides. Many authors documented the diference between the previously mentioned parameters regarding the sex and side in diferent groups of populations such as China, hailand, Central India, Gujarat and North India [1,11,12].…”

“…Also, these diameters are used in radiological practice to identify pathology of bone and for determination of age. Finally, morphometric data of femur help doctors and nutritionists to calculate body energy need for normal individuals, sex identiication and in forensic medicine [1]. Femoral neck anteversion (FNA) is deined as the angle of torsion formed by the femoral condyles plane and plane passing through the center of the neck and femoral head [2].…”

Estimation of sex from the lower limb measurements of Sudanese adults

“…Previous studies in various populations have attempted to assess the sex estimation from foot bones and foot dimensions [21,22], tibia dimensions [3,10], and femur dimensions [8], which have been found to be useful for ease of defining the measurements needed for metric analysis [8,23]. An extensive literature review revealed that earlier works have studied anthropometric measurements of tibial length alone or in combination with bimalleolar breadth for stature and body-build estimation, as well as feet for stature and sex estimation.…”

“…The most dimorphic parts of the human skeleton are the pelvis and skull; their absence and the likelihood of recovering separated limbs in mass disasters necessitate the determination of the primary indicators of identification from limb parts [2,8]. The foot and its bones, footprints and the tibia have been shown to be relative accurate biological characteristics from which identification can be made [9,10].…”