1Associate Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Viswabharathi Medical College, Kurnool
2Assistant Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad
3Assistant Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Viswabharathi Medical College, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh
*Corresponding author: Dr. K. Subba Reddy, Associate Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Viswabharathi Medical College, R T Nagar, Penchikalapadu (V), Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh-518 463. e-: drsubbareddy007@gmail.com
Online published on 17 August, 2016.
The aim of the study is to assess the applicability of the sternal end of the fourth rib in sex determination.
The present study was conducted on 104 samples of fourth rib were taken of both sexes from dead body brought for post mortem examination in mortuary after taking consent from the kin of the deceased. Only 100 samples of the fourth rib of the dead bodies were taken for study out of 104 samples, and 4 samples were excluded as they were partially destroyed and fractured during collection procedure and were not suitable for study.
In the present study, total of 100 cases were examined and they were divided into 4 groups. Out of 100, males were 60 and females were 40 of the samples. The age of all samples ranged between 15 to 62 years with a mean age of 32.73 years. The age range for males was between 15 to 60 years was having a mean age of 34.38 years while the females was between 18 to 62 years which showed a mean age of 29.36 years. According to these results obtained from the tests, the three parameters are fit for all age groups used for sex determination only if the individual age is above 15 years because in all the results the significance is less than 0.005. All the three parameters can discriminate the gender appropriately. All three parameters have shown that they are highly significant. The method of measuring the height and breadth of the sternal end of the rib can produce highly significant association when assessing the sex.
The present study shows that several variables are important for the sex determination from the sternal end of the fourth rib. All the parameters showed positive significance which shows that the sternal end of the fourth rib is also reliable for determination of sex.
Sternal end, Fourth rib, Sex determination
