Estimation of Sexual Dimorphism by Osteometric Analysis of Patella

Identification is the act of establishing the identity. The pelvic bone and skull are the first choices for morphological sexing if not recovered in fragmentary states and if recovered in a fragmentary state, other bones such as the patella can be used for sex determination from osteometric analysis.

Patella from 400 subjects including male (199) and female (201) from both sides and studied nine dimentions which showed that there were definite sexual osteometric differences between male and female patella bones from the population of Haryana.

For both sides, weight had the maximum AUC (0.979 for right and 0.982 for left side), thus indicating it can be used for differentiation between males and females. For right and left sides, the projected sensitivity of weight was 96.5% and 97% respectively and value of patella parameters can be used for differentiation in gender. Using these techniques, projected specificity for right and left side of weight was 89.6% and 91% respectively.

These findings implied that, the determination of sex can be accomplished by comparing the dimension of unknown patella bone with the cut off value given. The present study produced standard for sex determination from patella and will be useful for forensic anthropologists.