Identification of sex and age for Egyptians using computed tomography of the first lumbar vertebra

Abstract

Abstract Background Identification of bony remains and other decomposed parts of human is of great importance not only for legal but also for humanitarian reasons. However, in certain instances due to burial factors or in cases of explosion disasters, many of large bones may be destroyed or incomplete. For age and sex identification, vertebrae aren’t well studied; however, many vertebrae showed high accuracy rates for sex identification. Methodology One hundred and twenty-three Egyptian patients were included in the current study; 62 were females and 61 were males (age from 10 to 64 years). Abdominal Computer tomography (CT) scans were done for those patients in the Department of Radiology in kasralainy faculty of medicine, Cairo University after they gave informed consent. Fifteen linear measurements were taken for the first lumbar vertebra (L1) to assess age and sex. Results Male patients showed larger mean values most of measurements of the first lumbar vertebra than females and sex was determined at accuracy rate of 84.6%. Moreover, significant correlation was found for age and majority of measurements; but unfortunately it was weak correlation. Conclusion Sex can be estimated from first lumbar vertebrae with reasonable levels of accuracy in legal and humanitarian situations when skeletal remains are incomplete. However, it seems that vertebral measurements of lumbar vertebra aren’t useful indicator for age estimation with further studies needed on larger samples and on different age groups.

Keywords

• Age
• Sex
• Egyptians
• Computed tomography
• Lumbar vertebrae