Sexual dimorphism of maxillary sinus using cone beam computed tomography

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the sexual dimorphism of maxillary sinus dimensions using the CBCT imaging modality. Thirty CBCT scans of bilateral maxillary sinuses (60 maxillary sinuses) were retrospectively selected and the height, width, and depth of the sinuses were measured. All data were subjected to descriptive and discriminative functional analysis with generation of multiple logistic regression model and ROC analysis. The overall values of the parameters were significantly greater in the males as compared to the females with the right height (90.0%) and the left height (83.3%) being the best predictors. This study proposes the importance of sexual dimorphism of maxillary sinus dimensions particularly the sinus height, when other methods used in the field of forensics seem to be indecisive. It suggests the use of CBCT in forensics thus obviating the complete dependence on the usage of conventional CT.

Keywords

• Forensic science
• Forensic anthropology
• Radiology
• Cone beam computed tomography
• Sexual dimorphism
• Maxillary sinus