Determination of sex by morphometric study of malleus bone in human cadaver

Abstract

Identification is the process of determining a person's uniqueness, whether they are alive or dead. Skeletal remains contain an abundance of information which is helpful in determination of identity of an individual. This is an Analytical Cross-Sectional Study carried out on 45 adult male and 45 female cases that came for medico-legal autopsy at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Dilshad Garden, and East Delhi with known sex and of any age from January 2021 to Aug 2022.The three measurements were taken for malleus bone i.e. Total length of malleus bone, the length of manubrium (handle) of malleus bone and Index of malleus bone. The bone was then measured by using digital vernier calipers of least count 0.001mm. In this study, we found that length of malleus bone was range from 7.15mm to 8.83mm inMales (Mean±SD, 7.97± 0.433) whereas in females it range from 6.67mm to 8.29mm (Mean±SD, 7.73± 0.296).The Maximum length of Handle (5.41mm) of malleus bone was in Males (Mean±SD, 4.79 ± 0.297) whereas in Females the maximum length of handle of malleus bone observed was 5.29mm (Mean±SD, 4.54± 0.282).The Total length of Malleus bone, Handle of malleus and Malleus index were more is Male as compared to Female and which is found to be statistically significant (p=0.003), (p=0.001) and (p=0.019) respectively. There is a clear-cut demarcation between the values of male and female bone and considered fairly good criteria in sex determination. The sexual dimorphism is most marked in the Total length of Malleus bone, Handle of malleus and Malleus index of Malleus bone, and there is a significant difference was observed.