Abstract:

Abstract:Objective To establish the method of using the 12th vertebrae for sex determination of adult Chinese and evaluate its effect. Methods The 12th thoracic vertebrae were developed by the clinic abdomen CT images. A total of 25 linear measurements on 7 aspects of the vertebrae were measured and 4 ratios were calculated. The items were selected which had the significant difference to establish the sex determination equation and its  effect was evaluated.  Results Of the total 29 traits,27 were sexually dimorphic(P<0.05),the accuracy was 56.3%-89.2%,8 traits had the accuracies mean or over 80.0%.The trait iVL had the highest accuracy of  89.2%. A function with four variables predicting sex with 90.8% accuracy was derived by using stepwise method of discriminant function analysis:Y=2.98×iBDsm+1.97×PH+3.37×BHp+3.27×sVL/BHa－32.80(mean centroids=－7.69). Conclusion The method of using the selected traits for sex determination of adult Chinese is practicable and it has a relatively high accuracy.

Key words: forensic anthropology;sex determination by skeleton;12th thoracic vertebrae;imaging,three-dimensional