Determination of sex from femora.

ABSTRACT

The determination of sex from bones or bone fragments considerably contributes to identifying unknown bodies or skeletal remains. Due to temporal change and regional differences anthropometric standards have to be constantly renewed. The present study provides measurements of femoral dimensions in a contemporary German population and analyses sexual dimorphism by discriminant analysis. Maximum length (male 46.4+/-2.4 cm, female 43.4+/-2.4 cm), maximum midshaft diameter (male 3.1+/-0.2 cm, female 2.8+/-0.2 cm), condylar width (male 8.4+/-1.0 cm, female 7.7+/-0.5 cm), vertical head diameter (male 4.9+/-0.3 cm, female 4.4+/-0.3 cm), head circumference (male 15.7+/-0.8 cm, female 13.8+/-1.0 cm) and transverse head diameter (male 4.9+/-0.3 cm, female 4.3+/-0.3 cm) were measured in 170 femora, 100 from male (age 16-92 years, mean 60.8 years; body height 153-190 cm, mean 171 cm) and 70 from female (age 20-96 years, mean 72 years; body height 146-175 cm, mean 161 cm) individuals. In the discriminant analysis (leave-one-out-method) 67.7% of cases could be grouped correctly with the maximum length alone, 72.4% with the maximum midshaft diameter, 81.4% with the condylar width, 86.8% with the vertical head diameter, 87.7% with the head circumference and 89.6% with the transverse head diameter. The stepwise procedure with all head measurements showed that the results for the transverse head diameter could not be improved. With all measurements subjected to stepwise procedure 91.7% of cases could be classified correctly combining midshaft diameter and head circumference (D=3.012xmidshaft diameter in cm+0.780xhead circumference in cm 20.569).