Estimation of Body Stature Using Femur Length in South Indian Population: a Cross Sectional Study

Address for Correspondence: Dr. Rameswarapu Suman Babu, Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy, Narayana Medical College, Nellore -524 003, Andhra Pradesh, India. Mobile no.: +919866567467 E-Mail: [email protected] Background: The identity of the dead and mutilated is an essential part of medico-legal and various social reasons. Stature can be estimated by either anatomical method or mathematical way. Skeletal height is estimated by use of bone length and regression formula. To this purpose, we estimated femur length by measuring intertrochanteric crest to create regression equation in south Indian population. Materials and Methods: The present study comprises of a total 100 ossified dried adult human femurs of both sexes were taken for morphometric measurements, from the collection of the bone bank of Medi Citi Institute of Medical Sciences Anatomy department for 12 months period between June 2008 to June 2009. Femur measurements were taken using Osteometric board and digital Vernier callipers. Inter-trochanteric crest at the upper level of the femur was measured by using sliding digital callipers. The measurements obtained were analysed using SPSS Statistical software for Windows version 13. Metric data were reported as the mean, median and standard deviation. P value of <0.05 was taken as significant. Results: Total 100 dried human femurs were used in the study. The mean value of femoral length and the intertrochanteric crests were 41.66 cm and 5.98 cm respectively. The Pearson‘s correlation coefficient was 0.64. The value of R-squared was 0.426. From the equation, the values were obtained for 100 randomly selected bones. These were compared with the observed length of those (n=100) and test of significance was done. The difference between the mean of estimated and observed values of the total length was by chance (p-value >0.05) indicating the validity of the regression equation. Conclusion: This study showed the development of specific osteometric standards for stature determination from the femur of recent South Indian population with satisfactory accuracy. Hence this study concludes femur inter trochanteric crest length can be used as better alternative variable for estimating body stature length using regression formulae.