Gender differentiation from sternal width

A post-mortem study was conducted to differentiate male and female sternum. A total of 100 sternums of adult individuals (56 males & 44 females) were obtained from the cases brought for autopsy to the Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi between the periods August 2005 to March 2007. Our study concluded that the widths of manubrium and width of third sternebrae were not found useful for determining sex from sternum. However, by using width of first sternebrae, 71.42% male and 95.45% female sternums could be sexed correctly.