Estimation of stature from left upper limb anthropometry in North Karnataka population: A cadaveric study

Abstract

Estimation of stature plays an important role in the process of anthropolog y. This mirrors the culture, built of a person and many factors. Hence the anthropometric technique is exclusively used by medical scientists and anatomists to estimate the body size since many years. The present study was conducted to estimate the left humer al length from the measurements of proximal and distal segments of humerus in region of North Karnataka population using regression equation. This helps in estimating the stature of individual using standard regression formulae and tocompare these data with the study conducted in other countries for the use in forensic and archeologicalstudies. The current study was therefore focussed on proximal and distal segments of left humerus and using these, the length of the left humerus was estimated. Materials and Methods: The different measurements of proximal and the distal segments of 47 left humeri and the mean values of the maximum length of the left humerus (MHL) were noted and used in our study to derive the regression equation. . Maximum length of humerus, vertical and transverse diameter of proximal segment, transverse diameter and biepicondylar width of distal segment were measured using anthropometric techniques. Results: With the fragment measurements obtained, regression equations for left humeri was derived to estimate the maximum length of the humerus in North Karnataka region population. On applying the regression analysis, among 47left humeri, it was found that, the vertical diameter of superior articular surface had significant role in estimating the maximum humeral length with maximum correlation coefficient of 0.87 (p<0.05). Conclusion:The result of this study concludes that the length of the left humerus can be estimated from the measures of proximal and distal segments of left humerus.