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International Journal of Legal Medicine
Published in: International Journal of Legal Medicine 3/2018

01-05-2018 | Original Article

Sex determination of a Tunisian population by CT scan analysis of the skull

Authors: Malek Zaafrane, Mehdi Ben Khelil, Ines Naccache, Ekbel Ezzedine, Frédéric Savall, Norbert Telmon, Najla Mnif, Moncef Hamdoun

Published in: International Journal of Legal Medicine | Issue 3/2018

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Abstract

It is widely accepted that the estimation of biological attributes in the human skeleton is more accurate when population-specific standards are applied. With the shortage of such data for contemporary North African populations, it is duly required to establish population-specific standards. We present here the first craniometric standards for sex determination of a contemporary Tunisian population. The aim of this study was to analyze the correlation between sex and metric parameters of the skull in this population using CT scan analysis and to generate proper reliable standards for sex determination of a complete or fragmented skull. The study sample comprised cranial multislice computed tomography scans of 510 individuals equally distributed by sex. ASIRTM software in a General ElectricTM workstation was used to position 37 landmarks along the volume-rendered images and the multiplanar slices, defining 27 inter-landmark distances. Frontal and parietal bone thickness was also measured for each case. The data were analyzed using basic descriptive statistics and logistic regression with cross-validation of classification results. All of the measurements were sexually dimorphic with male values being higher than female values. A nine-variable model achieved the maximum classification accuracy of 90% with −2.9% sex bias and a six-variable model yielded 85.9% sexing accuracy with −0.97% sex bias. We conclude that the skull is highly dimorphic and represents a reliable bone for sex determination in contemporary Tunisian individuals.
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Metadata
Title
Sex determination of a Tunisian population by CT scan analysis of the skull
Authors
Malek Zaafrane
Mehdi Ben Khelil
Ines Naccache
Ekbel Ezzedine
Frédéric Savall
Norbert Telmon
Najla Mnif
Moncef Hamdoun
Publication date
01-05-2018
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
International Journal of Legal Medicine / Issue 3/2018
Print ISSN: 0937-9827
Electronic ISSN: 1437-1596
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-017-1688-1

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