Sex determination and estimation of stature from the longbones of the arm

The determination of sex and the estimation of stature from bones play an i mportant role in identifying unknown bodies, parts of bodies or skeletal re mains. In medico-legal practice statements on the probable sex of a decompo sed body or part of a body are often expected even during autopsy. The pres ent study was, therefore, restricted to few easily accessible dimensions fr om bones which were prepared only by mechanically removing soft tissues, te ndons and ligaments. The specimens came from the Anatomical Institutes in M unich and Cologne from the years 1994-1998 including a total of 143 individ uals (64 males and 79 females). The mean age was 79 years (46-108), the mea n body height 161 cm (134-189). The following measurements were taken: maxi mum humeral length (mean: 33.4 cm in males; 30.7 cm in females), vertical h umeral head diameter (mean: 5.0 cm in males, 4.4 cm in females), humeral ep icondylar width (mean: 6.6 cm in males; 5.8 cm in females), maximum ulnar l ength (mean: 26.5 cm in males, 23.8 cm in females), proximal ulnar width (m ean: 3.4 cm in males, 2.9 cm in females), distal ulnar width (mean: 2.2 cm in males; 1.8 cm in females), maximum radial length (mean: 24.6 cm in males ; 22.0 cm in females), radial head diameter (mean: 2.6 cm in males, 2.2 cm in females) and distal radial width (mean: 3.6 cm in males; 3.2 cm in femal es). The differences between the means in males and females were significan t (P < 0.0005). A discriminant analysis was carried out with good results. A percentage of 94.93% of cases were correctly classified when all measures of the radius were applied jointly, followed by humerus (93.15%) and ulna (90.58%). Applied singly, the humeral head diameter allowed the best distin ction (90.41% correctly grouped cases), followed by the radial length (89.1 3%), the radial head diameter (88.57%) and the humeral epicondylar width (8 8.49%). The linear regression analysis for quantifying the correlation betw een the bone lengths and the stature led to unsatifactory results with larg e 95%-confidence intervals for the coefficients and high standard errors of estimate. <(c)> 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.