Sternal index: Is it a reliable indicator of sex in the Maharashtrian population of India?

Estimating sex of the human skeleton based on metrics of the sternum

“…Lastly, the sternal index was calculated in Excel by creating a formula that divided the length of the manubrium by the length of the mesosternum and multiplied by 100, following the definition provided by Hunnargi et al [23]. The average of the sternal index for males and females were compared to see if there was a significant difference between the two sexes.…”

“…Previous researchers have found the sternum to provide an accurate estimation of sex [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], however, the majority of prior research utilized skeletal remains from populations outside of the Previous research has shown that analyzing the sternum may lead to an accurate estimation of sex based on studies performed on various populations around the globe, such as Indian, European, African, Canadian and North American. The motivation of the current study is to develop classification functions and sectioning points for use in forensic investigations in the United States.…”

“…The motivation of the current study is to develop classification functions and sectioning points for use in forensic investigations in the United States. The majority of previously published methods are population specific, meaning the data would not prove useful in the United States [8][9][10][11][12]14,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23].…”

“…Previous studies [8,9,12,17,18,23] analyze the applicability of Hyrtl's law in the estimation of sex. This law follows that the mesosternum is greater than twice the length of the manubrium in males and in females the length of the manubrium is greater than half the length of the mesosternum.…”

“…Contemporarily, Strauch [32], Petermoller [33], and Bogusat [34] each performed additional research on the sternum, with results generally verifying Hyrtl's Law, however, exceptions did exist such as considerable overlap between the sexes and a common trend where the mean was found to be useful but not the individual measurement. This Law continues to be taught as true, regardless of the many studies that found it to be unreliable [8][9][10]12,14,17,18,21,23]. Therefore, Hyrtl's Law will be tested on a recent sample from the United States.…”