Background: Identification is the cornerstone in forensic medicine. Accurate sex identification from fragmented bones is a challenging medicolegal task. The hard palate is a well-protected part in the skull base with sexually dimorphic characters.
Objectives: This current research aimed to predict sex from palatine bones in a sample of Egyptians using 3D Computed Tomography.
Subjects and methods: The study included 100 adult Egyptians (47 males, 53 females) who performed skull CT. The studied palatine measurements were Maxillo-Alveolar Breadth (MAB), Maxillo-Alveolar Length (MAL), Incisive foramen - greater palatine foramen (IF-RGPF, IF-LGPF), Incisive Foramen-Basion (IF-B), and Incisive Foramen- mastoid Notch (IF-RMN, IF-LMN). Maxillo-Alveolar Index (MAI) and size of the palate were also calculated.
Result: Most palatine measurements were higher among males. However, a significant difference was observed among MAB, MAL, IF- RMN, and IF-LMN. These significant measurements were included in regression analysis for sex prediction. The highest accuracy was obtained by an equation including MAL, MAB, IF- RMN, and IF- LMN together (68%) followed by MAL (64%) followed by IF- RMN, IF- LMN and MAB 63%, 61%, 60% respectively. Moreover, Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed that the combined parameters (MAL, MAB, IF- RMN, and IF- LMN) were the best sex discriminator (accuracy 68%), followed by MAL (64%) followed by MAB (62%) and IF- LMN (61%).