Morphometry of the Maxillary Sinus and its Role in Sex Determination in Delta State Nigeria: Retrospective CT Study

Abstract

The morphometric parameters of the maxillary sinus are important in the forensic identification of unknown human skulls. This study aimed at determining the accuracy of using the dimensions of the maxillary sinus in sex determination. Skull Computed Tomography images of 292 adult patients, stored in the Radiology Department of a teaching hospital in Nigeria were retrospectively used to measure the dimensions of the maxillary sinus after obtaining the institution's approval. Using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 23, the side and gender comparisons were evaluated using student's t-test while the correlation between the metric parameters was determined using Pearson's test. P-value was considered significant at <0.05. Discriminant function analysis was used to evaluate the accuracy of using the dimensions for sex prediction. The dimensions of the maxillary sinus were significantly larger in males than in females (p<0.05) but lacked significant association with age (p>0.05). The left maxillary sinus height was the best sex discriminating variable (238,81.5%). The accuracy of correct sex prediction increased when all the dimensions of the right (240,82.2%), left (243,83.2%) or both maxillary sinuses (258,88.4%) were used. In conclusion, the MS dimensions may be used for sex determination with acceptable accuracy in the studied population.