Identification of sex from tibia by Discriminant Function Analysis

Identification of sex is one of the most important steps while evaluating decomposed bodies or skeletal remains for forensic purposes. Usually availability of long bones of limbs is common. Several standards have been developed using tibia in different population. The purpose of this study was the osteometric assessment of sexual dimorphism in recent population of Varanasi area of eastern UP and the development of discriminant function standards to determine sex from tibia. 58 tibiae (40 male and 18 females) in the age range of 25 years to 58 years were collected in the department of Forensic Medicine, IMS, BHU. Anthropometric measurements of the tibia included maximum length of tibia, proximal breadth, distal breadth, transverse diameter at nutrient foramen, antero-posterior diameter at nutrient foramen, circumference at nutrient foramen and minimum girth of shaft were recorded and analyzed using discriminant function analysis. The average predictive accuracy 82.8% (87.5% for males and 72.2% for females).