Comparison of morphological measures of nasal bone between genders using computed tomography

Abstract

Facial anthropometry plays an important role in forensic investigations especially in identification of decomposed bodies from  skeletal remains. Dimensions of nasal bone is one such parameter that can be used to determine sex. The main aim of the study is to  compare the morphological measures of nasal bone between genders using computed tomography. This is a retrospective study on the  patients visiting the Dept. of Radiodiagnosis and Imaging, Kasturba Hospital, Manipal. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria,  240 subjects (120 males and 120 females) who were referred for routine CT OMC were included in the study. The axial sections were  converted into coronal and sagittal slices using the multiplanar reconstruction tool. Three anthropometric parameters were measured.  A total of 240 (120 males and 120 females) data was obtained with age group ranging from 20-50 years. Mean and Standard deviation  was calculated. The data was normally distributed hence independent sample T test was performed to find the difference between  males and females. Null hypothesis stated that there was no significant difference based on the anthropometric measurements between  the males and females since the (p>0.05). Alternate hypothesis stated that there is significant difference noted between the males and  females(p<0.001). In present study, three measurements of the nasal bone were taken such as the nasofrontal angle, pyramidal angle  and the linear distance out of which two variables i.e. the pyramidal angle and the linear distance were good discriminators which  contributed high accuracy in comparison to the other parameter.