Sex determination from carpal bone volumes: A Multi Detector Computed Tomography (MDCT) study in a Malaysian population

• The use of CT volume measurement of human carpal bones can determine sex.
• CT enables carpal bone volume determination whilst preserving fragmented human remains.
• AUC assessment showed the trapezium bone was best able to predict sex.

PurposeThe use of Multi Detector Computed Tomography (MDCT) volume measurements of bones for sex determination allows fragile, fragmented human remains to be assessed without compromising the specimen. We set out to assess the ability of MDCT carpal bone volume measurement in determining sex in a Malaysian population.Materials and methods52 healthy volunteers were scanned in a 16-slice MDCT, and the volume of 104 sets of carpal bones was measured using a Syngo workstation (Both CT and workstation-Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany).ResultsMale carpal bones were of higher volume compared to the female carpal bones (p < 0.001). Area under the curve (AUC) assessment of responder-operator characteristics curves showed that the trapezium bone was best able to predict sex with an AUC of 0.986. At a trapezium bone volume of ⩾1.94 cm3, there was a 93.5% probability that the subject was male. Binary logistic regression analysis found that the highest accuracy was derived using the pisiform, trapezium and capitate bones. There was a strong relationship between sex prediction and grouping of the carpal bone volumes (Nagelkerke R2 = 0.923) with an overall prediction accuracy of 97%.ConclusionAll 8 carpal bones exhibit sexual dimorphism to varying degrees. A binary regression analysis combining the 5 carpal bones with the highest predictive values for sex produces an accurate predictive model.

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