ABSTRACT
Introduction: Stature estimation by analyzing skeletalremains or body parts is an essential part of humanidentification. One critical role of stature estimation todaylies in the forensic identification of crime victims andmissing persons. Femur, being the longest and strongest bonein the body, plays a crucial role while estimating stature ofan individual. In this study, we tested a new approach topredict the stature of a person by radiologically measuringthe femur length.Material and methods: Our study was conducted on 100South Indian subjects (50 males and 50 females) with an aimof obtaining regression formulae for estimation of stature ofmales and females, from maximum femur length and anotherindividual sample consisting of 20 male and 20 femaleparticipants belonging to the same criteria as the preliminarysubject group was used for validating the obtained equations.Results: It was observed that femur length showedstatistically significant correlation with stature in both thegroups (p=0.0001). Regression equations specific togeographical (South-Indian) population were statisticallyanalyzed for femur lengths in males (r=0.880) and females(r=0.862) and significantly proved reliable in estimatingthe living stature of an individual.Conclusion: In our study, the mean stature value of maleswas higher than that of females contributing to theinference that males are generally taller than females.