Anthropometric characteristics of patella for sex estimation using magnetic resonance images

ABSTRACT Sex estimation of skeletal remains is an essential step in forensic anthropology since. In this study, sex estimation with patella metric parameters obtained from Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of an Iranian population, which consists of 161 living subjects (79 males, 82 female) aged between 30 – 50 years, is performed. Univariate discriminant analysis and multivariate discriminant function analysis are used for three measurements on the patella (transverse length, craniocaudal length, and anterioposterior length) in this study. The diagnostic accuracy of patella sex estimation for transverse, craniocaudal and Anterior-posterior lengths were %84.5, %75.2 and %65.8, respectively. In the discriminant analysis, the maximum transverse length and maximum craniocaudal length were selected in the stepwise analysis with an average accuracy of 85.7% in correct sex classification. In conclusion, measuring the patella dimensions by the MRI method can be effective for Sex estimation with good accuracy in the Iranian population.