Abstract
Sex determination is the starting point in forensic anthropology (identification of an individual from skeletal remains) as it reduces the number of possible matches of unknown persons by 50%. The talus bone has an important role in human sex identification due to its durability as it is usually recovered in an intact state and it is readily distinguished from its characteristic morphology during the recovery of human skeletons. The aim of this study was to investigate the sex-discriminating potential of the Transverse Breadth (TB) of the talus in a sample of Egyptian Population.
Subjects and methods: This study was done using 320 computed tomography (CT) images of ankle joints (160 males and 160 females) obtained from Radiology Department, Menoufia University Hospital. Measurements were done in mid coronal sections. Sex dimorphism was evaluated using student t- test, demarking points (DPs), index of sexual dimorphism (ISD) and logistic regression analysis.
Results:- The Transverse Breadth of right and left talus in males were statistically significantly higher than those in females. ISD confirm sexual dimorphism with higher DPs in males than those of females. Sensitivity was 76.9%, specificity was 75.6 % and accuracy rate was 76.9%.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that the transverse breadth of talus bone of this sample of Egyptian population is an important parameter for sex determination and CT is an accurate and reliable method for sex determination from talus bones.
Recommendations
Further similar studies estimating the role of talus bones in sex differentiation from different regions of Egypt are required.
Application of the equation derived from the present study for sex determination on Egyptian population is recommended.