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International Journal of Legal Medicine
Published in: International Journal of Legal Medicine 6/2013

01-11-2013 | Original Article

Image analysis of pubic bone for sex determination in a computed tomography sample

Authors: Manuel López-Alcaraz, Pedro Manuel Garamendi González, Inmaculada Alemán Aguilera, Miguel Botella López

Published in: International Journal of Legal Medicine | Issue 6/2013

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Abstract

Radiology has demonstrated great utility for sex determination, but most studies are based in metrical and morphological methods in order to perform an identification profile. It is presented an easy image analysis-based method aimed to demonstrate the relationship between the bony tissue ultrastructure and sex by using several grey level histogram variables obtained from computed tomography images using sagittal sections of the pubic symphysis surface and the body of the pubis. The CT sample consisted of 169 hospital DICOM archives of known sex and age. The multivariate binary logistic regression models calculated showed reliabilities for sex determination between 87.4 and 95.8 %, with a high intra and inter-observer agreement. The suggested method is not only considered useful to perform an identification profile during Virtopsy, but even for application in further studies in order to attach a quantitative correlation for tissue ultrastructure characteristics without complex and expensive methods beyond image analysis.
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Metadata
Title
Image analysis of pubic bone for sex determination in a computed tomography sample
Authors
Manuel López-Alcaraz
Pedro Manuel Garamendi González
Inmaculada Alemán Aguilera
Miguel Botella López
Publication date
01-11-2013
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
International Journal of Legal Medicine / Issue 6/2013
Print ISSN: 0937-9827
Electronic ISSN: 1437-1596
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-013-0900-1

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