Morphometric Evaluation of Piriform and Orbital Aperture in Sex Discrimination by Using Computed Tomography in Egyptian Population

Abstract

Human skeletal remains identification is crucial in forensic investigations, so the differentiation of the sex of a human bone is a significant initial stage for estimation of age and height of any unknown skeletal bone. AIM: The present study was designed to compare and evaluate the role of piriform and orbital aperture measurements in sex discrimination by using computed tomography in a sample of Egyptian population. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This study was done by using 89 computed tomography (CT) images of the piriform and orbital bone obtained from the Radiology Department, Menoufia University Hospital for numbers of males' and females' patients (43 of them were for males and 46 were for females) aged from 20 to 70 years; where the morphometric measurements of piriform and orbital aperture were obtained. RESULTS: This study was conducted on 89 CT images; 43 of them were for males representing 48.3% with a mean age of 47.44± 16.54 years, while 46 cases were for females representing 51.7% with a mean age 44.52 ±15.56 years. A highly significant difference (p<0.01) was obvious between both sexes for left orbital width, right, and left orbital area with greater values in males. Measurements of piriform aperture (PA) in this study as length, width, and area showed that males presented with significantly greater mean values than females. Besides that, the Piriform area was the best sex discriminant measure as it had the highest sensitivity 93%, specificity by 85%, and accuracy of 88.7% at a cutoff equal to 64 mm or more suggesting males (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Sex determination of human skeletons is important in forensic and anthropological research. The present study revealed that piriform and orbital aperture have sexual dimorphism and can be helpful in sex discrimination, especially the piriform area, which had the best accuracy in this study, as it had the highest sensitivity 93%, specificity 85%, and 88.7% accuracy.

Türk popülasyonunda orbita’nın morfometrik analizi: MDBT çalışması

“…In Nitek et al (2009)'s study (1), it was noted that this parameter varies depending on the body side and is significantly larger on the left side (p˂0.05). Similarly to previous studies (9,10,13,16,19), it was found in our study that the height of the orbit was not affected by the body side. In our study, while the orbital height was similar to CT studies (13,14,17,19), it was found that it was larger than the results of dry bone and direct graphy studies.…”

“…Similarly to previous studies (9,10,13,16,19), it was found in our study that the height of the orbit was not affected by the body side. In our study, while the orbital height was similar to CT studies (13,14,17,19), it was found that it was larger than the results of dry bone and direct graphy studies. The difference in the results of the study may be different methods, race and age groups.…”

“…The studies in which the width of the orbit is evaluated with various methods are summarized in Table 4. As in some studies (10,14,16,17,18,19), it was found in our study that man have a statistically significantly wider orbit than female (p˂0.05). Consistent with the dry bone (1,9) and MDCT (13,19) studies evaluating the orbital width according to the side, it was also found in our study that the width did not show a significant difference between the sides (p˃0.05).…”

“…As in some studies (10,14,16,17,18,19), it was found in our study that man have a statistically significantly wider orbit than female (p˂0.05). Consistent with the dry bone (1,9) and MDCT (13,19) studies evaluating the orbital width according to the side, it was also found in our study that the width did not show a significant difference between the sides (p˃0.05). In our study, it was observed that the orbital width was generally smaller than the other studies in the table, which is because it was thought that the method used may be due to the age and race differences of the individuals.…”

Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Sexual Dimorphism in Aditus Orbitae of Kacang Goat (Capra aegragus hircus)

“…Lidstone (2011) demonstrated, this will be achieved by attempting to identify male and female pattern of orbital shape using a series of landmarks along the margin of the orbits. In human, quantitative analysis aperture of orbit utilizing as a tool to identify sexes, had the greatest effect between observation and the revealed varying results (Sreekanth and Hema, 2019;El-Farouny, et al, 2021).…”