Prediction of sex and stature of Egyptians by radiographic measurements of metacarpals and proximal phalanges of thumb and index fingers among Egyptians

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to provide models for discrimination of sex and estimation of stature of Egyptians using the thumb and index metacarpals and proximal phalanges of left and right hands. Standard posteroanterior radiographs were taken from 202 living unrelated Egyptians [102 males and 100 females]. A series of maximum lengths, maximum base, head and mid-shaft widths were obtained from the radiographs of each bone using the computer programs, Corel Draw [Vergin 10] and adobe photoshop [Vergin 7.0 ME]. The functional discriminant analysis for sex discrimination of each parameter has shown that, the maximum basal widths of the left thumb and index metacarpals are the measurements of greatest sex difference as they correctly classified sex by 85.9 and 85% respectively. W hen t he m easurements of each bone were used collectively, the left thumb metacarpal was the bone of greatest sex difference as it correctly classified sex by 87%. In this study stature was regressed on the basis of the selected variable for each bone to derive equations for estimation of stature. The results of this study confirm that the thumb and index metacarpals and proximal phalanges are good skeletal components from which it is possible to discriminate sex and estimate stature