Approaching Sex Determination by Computed Tomography Study of the Maxillary Sinuses: Application in a Tunisian Population and Literature Review

Authors: Hadj MB*, Aissaoui A, Mhamdi S EI, Oualha D, Dhouieb R and Chadly A

Volume 5, Issue 2

Abstract

Purpose: The present study was performed to investigate the reliability and accuracy of maxillary sinus dimensions as a method for sex determination in a Tunisian sample. Method: This was a prospective study of a cohort of 225 Tunisian individuals (120 men and 105 women), aged 20 to 90 years who underwent a Computed Tomography (CT) scan of the maxillary sinuses to investigate whether these parameters could be used to determine the sex for forensic identification. The used measurement parameters were: the caniocaudal diameter (CCD), the anteroposterior diameter (APD), the transverse diameter (TD), and the volume (V). The statistical analyses were performed by using the SPSS 18.0 package program. The significance rate (p) was set at 0.05. Results: The anteroposterior, transverse, craniocaudal diameters and volume of the maxillary sinuses of males were found to be statistically larger than those of females. The study of the applicability of such method in the sex determination showed a good correlation with TD, APD and volume of the right maxillary sinus. We concluded that the correct predictive accuracy was 63.3% in males and 64.8% in females, with a mean of 64%. Conclusions: Our results suggest that maxillary sinuses CT-Scan analysis can be used for sex determination in the Tunisian population where other anthropological methods are not conclusive.

Keywords: Forensic medicine; Anthropology; Sex; Computed Tomography; Maxillary Sinus

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