Sex estimation of the tibia in modern Turkish: A computed tomography study

Abstract

The utilization of computed tomography is beneficial for the analysis of skeletal remains and it has important advantages for anthropometric studies. The present study investigated morphometry of left tibia using CT images of a contemporary Turkish population. Seven parameters were measured on 203 individuals (124 males and 79 females) within the 19-92-years age group. The first objective of this study was to provide population-specific sex estimation equations for the contemporary Turkish population based on CT images. A second objective was to test the sex estimation formulae on Southern Europeans by Kranioti and Apostol (2015). Univariate discriminant functions resulted in classification accuracy that ranged from 66 to 86%. The best single variable was found to be upper epiphyseal breadth (86%) followed by lower epiphyseal breadth (85%). Multivariate discriminant functions resulted in classification accuracy for cross-validated data ranged from 79 to 86%. Applying the multivariate sex estimation formulae on Southern Europeans (SE) by Kranioti and Apostol in our sample resulted in very high classification accuracy ranging from 81 to 88%. In addition, 35.5-47% of the total Turkish sample is correctly classified with over 95% posterior probability, which is actually higher than the one reported for the original sample (25-43%). We conclude that the tibia is a very useful bone for sex estimation in the contemporary Turkish population. Moreover, our test results support the hypothesis that the SE formulae are sufficient for the contemporary Turkish population and they can be used safely for criminal investigations when posterior probabilities are over 95%.

Sex estimation in a contemporary Turkish population based on CT scans of the calcaneus

“…In conclusion, the calcaneus bone was found to be very sexually dimorphic in the Turkish population reaching an overall accuracy rate of 97.5% for the validation sample. This is actually the highest accuracy rate for sex estimation for this population as other studies on the crania [30,32] and tibia [28] did not exceed 90%. In addition, the comparison between DFA and LOGR resulted in similar classification accuracy with lower sex bias in most of the cases when the LOGR was used.…”

“…The current study is focusing on the sexual dimorphism of the calcaneus, a resistant bone that is usually recovered intact in contemporary remains. The study population comes from Turkey, a country that lacks modern osteological collections due to religious prohibition [28]. Thus, CT scans of the calcaneus of living patients were used with the objective to create biological standards for sex estimation applicable to forensic cases in this area of the world.…”

“…The Turkish Human Rights Association (https://en.ihd.org.tr) has so far located numerous mass graves, with over 4000 unidentified individuals [27]. In addition, hundreds of missing persons from the recent 1976 conflict in Cyprus are of Turkish origin, which creates an emerging need for biological standards for this area of the world [28]. The lack of contemporary osteological collections in Turkey has been an obstacle for the development of osteological research in the past.…”

“…The lack of contemporary osteological collections in Turkey has been an obstacle for the development of osteological research in the past. The development of medical imaging technologies in recent years has allowed scholars to develop biological standards from patient's data, and from this data a substantial number of virtual studies have recently emerged [28][29][30][31][32]. This study aims to complement the growing database on osteometric standards for Turkish with the investigation of sexual dimorphism on the calcaneus using 3D reconstructions from CT scans.…”

Accuracy and reliability of Southern European standards for the tibia: a test of two Mediterranean populations

“…On the other hand, the Turkish sample was previously used to develop its own population specific standards using the tibia with a range of 66 to 86% of correct classification rates for univariate and multivariate approaches [29]. The highest correct classification for single sex indicators was achieved by upper breadth, and by length, and upper and lower breadth for multivariate functions (86% classification accuracy for both formulae).…”