Morphological Analysis of Foramen Magnum for Gender Determination by Using Computed Tomography

Abstract

Background: Radiographs and advance imaging of orofacial structures are routinely used for personal identification. Ante-mortem and post-mortem radiographs are essential in cases of human remains and computed tomography plays a significant role in such situations. Aim: To determine the gender from foramen magnum using computed tomography scan. Settings and Design: The retrospective study was conducted by assessing the radiographic records, available in the archives of department. Method and Material: Two hundred and fifty computed tomography (CT) scans of head and neck region were considered for morphometric analysis of foramen magnum using Syngo CT 2009E software. Statistical analysis: The analysis was performed by using ANOVA, chi-square, independent‘t’ test and discriminate function analysis. Results: The CT scan images of participants ranged from 08-79 years of age with equal number of males and females. The mean dimensions of foramen magnum in different age group was statistically not significant (p>0.05).The total mean length of foramen magnum was 35.64 + 3.39 mm and mean width was 29.17 + 2.89 mm. The mean dimensions of foramen magnum were higher in males and was highly significant (p<0.001). The co-relation of gender with morphology of foramen magnum was significant (p<0.05). The accuracy for diagnosing male and female from dimension was 80% and 75.2% respectively. But the accuracy for gender identification from length and width was 74% and 70% respectively. Conclusion: Personal identification is possible from the dimensions of foramen magnum and computed tomography plays a vital role.