Ancient to modern secular changes in the cranial/cephalic index in Korea: historical brachycephalization and recent debrachycephalization.

We investigated changes in the cranial/cephalic index of the Korean population in millennia, centuries, and recent decades. Secular changes of Korean's cephalic index in history were studied using the data of archaeology literature and our measurement data of different adult skull sets for the fifteenth-nineteenth century Joseon people, the Korean War victims (1950-1953), and the Korean skeletons collected by medical schools in the 1960s. A change in head shape during the last century was also estimated by the analysis on Korean cephalometric datasets of Korean Research Institute of Standards and Science. In brief, over the past 2000 years, the crania of Korean people have steadily changed from mesocephalic to brachycephalic, mainly due to the cranial length shortening. Brachycephalization accelerated at the beginning of the twentieth century and continued until the early twenty-first century, largely caused by increased cephalic breadth. We also note that debrachycephalization began in birth cohorts around 1965 for males and around 1970 for females. Taken together, we figure out that the head shape of Korean people has been gradually shortened over millennia and then has undergone dramatic shortening in the last century. In recent decades, however, the changing pattern has reversed to debrachycephalization, for which we discussed about the possible causes in the present report.

Cephalic Index in Indigenous Tharu Community.

INTRODUCTION: Cephalic index is an important parameter for differentiation of race and sex which varies significantly on the basis of hereditary, geographical, racial, sexual and other factors. It is a morphometric expression of different forms of head. The objective of this research was to evaluate the cephalic index of people of indigenous Tharu community of Biratnagar, Nepal and to determine different head types. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in which maximum head length and breadth of 100 adult Tharu people living in Biratnagar were measured using spreading caliper and scale. The cephalic index was obtained from these values using Hrdlicka's method. RESULTS: The mean cephalic index of the study population was 75.99±4.97. The mean cephalic indices of males and females were 76.22±5.14 and 75.78±4.85 respectively. The most common head type observed was dolichocephalic type 47 (47%). It was followed by mesocephalic type 37 (37%), brachycephalic type 13 (13%) was less common and least common was hyperbrachycephalic type 3 (3%). CONCLUSIONS: Long head (dolichocephalic) type is more common in Tharu population in both the genders, whereas, broad head (brachycephalic and hyperbrachycephalic) type is present in very few people.

Body mass estimation from the skeleton: An evaluation of 11 methods.

Estimating an individual body mass (BM) from the skeleton is a challenge for forensic anthropology. However, identifying someone's BMI (Body Mass Index) category, i.e. underweight, normal, overweight or obese, could contribute to identification. Individual BM is also known to influence the age-at-death estimation from the skeleton. Several methods are regularly used by both archaeologists and forensic practitioners to estimate individual BM. The most commonly used methods are based on femoral head breadth, or stature and bi-iliac breadth. However, those methods have been created from mean population BMs and are therefore meant to estimate the average BM of a population. Being that they are based on individual BM data and estimated femoral cortical areas, the newest published methods are supposed to be more accurate. We evaluated the accuracy and reliability of the most commonly used and most recent BM estimation methods (n=11) on a sample of 64 individuals. Both sexes and all BMI categories are represented, as well as a wide range of BM. Ages in this sample range from 20 to 87 years of age. Absolute and real differences between actual BM and estimated BM were assessed; they determined the accuracy for individual BM estimation and for average BM estimation of a population, respectively. The proportion of the sample whose estimated BM falls within ±10% and ±20% of their actual BM determines the reliability of the methods in our sample for, respectively, individual BM estimation and average BM of a population. The tested methods result in an absolute difference of 11kg-26kg±10kg with regards to prediction of individuals actual BM. The real differences are very variable from method to method, ranging from -14kg to 25kg. None of the tested methods is able to estimate BM of half of the sample within ±10% of their actual BM but most of them can estimate BM of more than half of the sample within ±20% of their actual BM. The errors increase with increasing BM, demonstrating a bias in all the methods. No bone variable tested correlated with BM. BMI categories were correctly predicted for less than 50% of the sample in most cases. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that the 11 methods tested are not suited for estimating individual BM or for predicting BMI categories. However, they are accurate and reliable enough for estimating the average BM of a population.

The study of cephalic index in North Indian population / Estudio de Índice cefálico en una población del norte de India

Cephalic index (CI) and head shape are greatly affected by geographical, sex, age and racial factors. Such data is of great medico legal and forensic importance which indicates that cephalic index can be used as marker of ethnicity. There is less published literature about cephalic index of Punjab population. Hence, we undertook this study to document the cephalometric characteristics and gender differences in cephalic index of Punjabi community. Head length, head breadth and CI were determined for 500 medical students (17­23 years) of Punjab. The mean cephalic index for males was 80.52 and for females 84.32 which was statistically significant. On comparison with the existing literature the Punjabi community can be categorized as Brachycephalic/ Hyperbrachicephalic. This is of immense value in forensic science for facial reconstruction of disputed identity, orthodontics, different oral & maxillofacial surgery or craniofacial surgery, paleoanthropology and phylogeography.

El índice cefálico (IC) y la forma de la cabeza se ven afectados en gran medida por las regiones geográficas, el sexo, la edad y los factores raciales. Este tipo de dato son de gran importancia legal y forense dado que el IC puede ser utilizado como marcador de la etnia. Hay escasa literatura publicada sobre el IC de la población de Punjab. Por lo tanto, se realizó este estudio para documentar las características cefalométricas y las diferencias de sexo en el IC de una comunidad Punjabi. La longitud y ancho la cabeza, junto al IC, fueron determinados en 500 estudiantes de medicina (17­23 años) de Punjab. El IC medio para los hombres fue de 80,52 y para las mujeres 84,32, lo que fue estadísticamente significativo. En comparación con la literatura existente, la comunidad Punjab puede ser categorizada como braquicefálica/ hiperbraquicefálica. Esta información es de importancia para las ciencias forenses en relación a la reconstrucción facial con fines de identificación, como así también para la cirugía oral, maxilofacial, craneofacial, la paleoantropología y la filogeografía.

Study of cephalic index in Indian students / Estudio del índice cefálico en estudiantes Indios

Cephalic index is important parameter for deciding race and sex of an individual whose identity is unknown. Cephalic index and head shape are greatly affected by geographical, sex, age and racial factors. Present study aimed at working out cephalic index in Indian students. 100 students were taken as subjects and head length, head breadth were measured. Indian males had mean cephalic index of 77.92 and they were mesocephalic and females had mean cephalic index of 80.85 and they were brachycephalic. The comparison was statistically significant. The data is utmost important in forensic medicine, anthropology and in genetics.

El índice cefálico es un parámetro importante para determinar la raza y el sexo de un individuo cuya identidad es desconocida. El índice cefálico y la forma de la cabeza se ven afectados en gran medida por la geografía, el sexo, la edad y factores raciales. El presente estudio tuvo como objetivo la elaboración de índice cefálico de estudiantes indios. Cien estudiantes fueron tomados como sujetos de estudio, y fue medida la longitud y amplitud de la cabeza. Los hombres indios tuvieron una media del índice cefálico de 77,92 correspondiente a individuos mesocéfalos, mientras que las mujeres tuvieron una media del índice cefálico de 80,85 siendo braquicéfalas. La comparación fue estadísticamente significativa. Los datos obtenidos son de importancia para la medicina forense, la antropología y la genética.