Sex estimation of frontal sinus volume from computed tomography scans in a Western Australian adult population

Renitta Rajan Thottungal, Zuzana Obertova, Ambika Flavel, Daniel Franklin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

With the increasing use of radiological three-dimensional imaging, different metric and morphological aspects of the frontal sinuses (FS) have been examined relative to their potential to aid human identification, including sex estimation. The aim of this study is to assess the validity of the metric analysis of the FS volume for estimating sex in a Western Australian (WA) adult population, following the Michel et al. (2015) method. The right, left and total frontal sinus volume (TFSV) from 99 computed tomography scans (47 males and 52 females) of WA individuals aged 18-40 years were three-dimensionally reconstructed using OsiriX ® and their volumes acquired in mm 3. Sexual dimorphism in the TFSV was tested, and the accuracy of the Michel et al. (2015) formulae was calculated. Population-specific regression equations were also produced. There was a significant difference between the mean TFSV in males and females. The classification accuracy derived from the Michel et al. (2015) formulae was 59.6%. The WA-specific logistic regression analysis yielded an accuracy of 57.2%. The low accuracy rates preclude the use of the sex estimation method in the WA population, but the volume analysis confirmed the individual variability of the frontal sinuses, which may be useful for personal identification.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)161-167
Number of pages7
JournalAnthropologischer Anzeiger: Bericht uber die biologisch-anthropologische Literatur
Volume81
Issue number2
Early online date29 Aug 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Mar 2024

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Sex estimation of frontal sinus volume from computed tomography scans in a Western Australian adult population'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this