Reliability of Multi Slice Computed Tomography in Sex Identification from Lumbar Vertebrae on a Sample of Libyan Population

Barakat, Wesam; El-Zahed, Eman; Baba, Mohammed

doi:10.21608/ejhm.2023.294340

Reliability of Multi Slice Computed Tomography in Sex Identification from Lumbar Vertebrae on a Sample of Libyan Population

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

10.21608/ejhm.2023.294340

Abstract

Background: Because of how heavily sex plays into future techniques of estimating age and stature, determining a person's sex is a crucial biological factor in defining personal identity. It's crucial for narrowing down the list of possible IDs. As such, it is one of the common methods used in forensics, especially in cases involving unidentified human remains and in disaster victim identification (DVI).
Objective: The aim of the current study was to identify the human sex by lumbar vertebra multi-slice CT (MSCT) on a sample of Libyans.
Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 98 subjects (49 males and 49 females). Group I included 49 males aged between 0 and 60 years, and Group II included 49 females aged between 10 and 60 years. All individuals were subjected to lumber vertebras (L1-L5) measurements to determine sex using multi-slice CT. Results: All measured parameters significantly increased in the first lumbar vertebrae to fifth lumbar vertebrae among males compared to females. Regarding detection of L1 to L5 parameters cut-off levels and their accuracy to estimate sex, males showed significantly higher parameters and the most accurate measurement was upper border (end plate) width (EPWu). Conclusion: sex can be reasonably determined from the first to the fifth in lumbar vertebrae for legal and humanitarian circumstances.

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