Application and validation of Diagnose Sexuelle Probabiliste V2 tool in a miscegenated population.

ABSTRACT

The hip bone (os coxae) is the skeletal element that presents the greatest level of sexual dimorphism. Therefore, methods involving the analysis of the os coxae provide the most accurate sex estimation, and DSP2 (Diagnose Sexuelle Probabiliste v.2) is one of the most accurate tools used in this identification. The goal of this study is to apply and validate DSP2 in the identification of 103 os coxae (53 male and 50 female) belonging to a Brazilian-identified skeletal collection. Differences between sexes were statistically significant for all measurements, except for the acetabulo-symphyseal and spino-auricular lengths. From the 103 os coxae analyzed, there was a 9.43% error in male individuals and a 14% error in females. The results revealed that DSP2 can be applied to Brazilian-mixed populations with a good index of accuracy, although at a lower accuracy than other population samples. This study also clearly demonstrates that metric variation of the os coxae is extremely useful in sex estimation and reinforces the notion that pelvic sexual dimorphism is not population-specific.