Description

ABSTRACT

Background: Identity of an individual can be determined by its sex, age, height, and ancestry background. This becomes important in many of the medicolegal cases where identity of the deceased has to be established. Craniometry is a vital tool in making a precise and systematic measurement of human skull, so as to deduce sex and height of dead individuals. Teeth are also very important elements in the identification of skeletal remains.

Aims: To assess the sex and height based on different craniometric and odontometric parameters in Uttar Pradesh population.

Materials and Methods: The study was carried out on 180 patients, 90 males and 90 females. The measurements were obtained for combined mesiodistal width of maxillary anterior teeth, right and left maxillary canine width, head circumference, inner canthal distance, inter-alar width, and skull diameter with the help of Vernier caliper, spreading caliper and a non stretchable measuring tape. Linear regression equations and correlation coefficients were derived for gender and height based on the above parameters.

Results: All recorded craniometric and odontometric measurements were significantly different between males and females (p<0.05). The ratios of measurements were also significantly different among males and females (p<0.05) except for head circumference to combined mesiodistal distance of maxillary anterior teeth and height to skull diameter.

Head circumference significantly predicted the height of male and female, with the regression equations for males (height=113.70+0.97 x head circumference, p=0.03) and females (height=74.78+1.55 x head  circumference, p=0.0001). While inner canthal distance predicted significantly only the height of males (height=149.73+0.57 x inner canthal distance, p=0.04). However, the combined data of males and females showed highly significant prediction of height by all craniometric parameters (p= 0.0001), and significant prediction by right and left maxillary canine width (odontometric parameters) (p<0.005) but not by combined mesiodistal width of maxillary anterior teeth which had no significant contribution in height estimation.

Key words: Craniometry, head circumference, height, inner canthal distance, odontometry, sex determination, stature estimation.