Role Of Pubis In Sexual Dimorphism Of Hip Bone - A Morphometric Study In North Indian Population

ABSTRACT

Background: Different bones of the human skeleton present age-, sex- and race-related dissimilarities, so thatusing visual criteria & metric techniques, age, sex, and race of an individual can be estimated from these bones.One such bone is the hip bone whose characteristic morphology makes it interesting from anatomical,anthropological, and forensic point of view. Its features are important not only for the anatomist but also for theanthropologist, for population studies & for forensic experts for specimen recognition and gender determinationof skeletal remains. The three constituent parts of hip bone i.e ilium, ischium and pubis depict different genderspecific features. The pubis showing pubertal changes first of all are being considered in this article. Its differentparameters will be definitely helpful to anatomists, anthropologists & forensic experts in their respective fields.Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted on 100 adult undamaged human hip bones, (MF=8020,RL= 5050) obtained from the Department of Anatomy, Government Medical College, Amritsar. The variousdimensions of the pubis measured were (1) Mid Pubic Width, (2) Length of Pubic Crest, (3) Length of Pubic Bone,(4) Length of Pubic bone upto acetabulum. The observations were statistically evaluated to find out sex & siderelated differences.Results: All the pubic parameters measured were significantly larger in female bones as compared to malebones, except the mid pubic width. However no significant side specific pattern could be determined in either sex.Conclusions: There is a relative paucity of region specific data for the various parameters of pubis in the accessibleliterature. Thus the present study advocates the significance of pubis in sexual dimorphism, for sex determination& provides reference values for the North India region.