Determination of sex in Bosnia and Herzegovina population based on morphometric measures on mandible: bigonial width and bicondylar width

Introduction:  Determination of sex from an unknown human bone is an important role in forensic and anthropology field. The mandible is the largest and hardest facial bone, that commonly resist post mortem damage and forms an important source of information about sexual dimorphism. Aim:  To determine the sex of unknown human adult mandible using metrical parameters. Material and Methods: A random collection of 80 dry, complete, undamaged human adult mandibles of Bosnia and Herzegovina population were subjected to metrical parameters like Bigonial width, Bicondylar width using specially designed Ellips software. The data’s were expressed as Mean ± SD and then analysed by t-test by use of SPSS software. Discriminating point and limiting points were also calculated. Results: In the present study, the Bigonial width was observed to be 9.57 ±5.19 cm in males and 8.87 ± 6.78 cm in females. The independent t test was done on to compare the two sets of means and P value was less than 0.0001 (p<0.05) which proves to be statistically significant. The Bicondylar width was observed to be 11.27 ± 5.57 cm in males and 10.75 ± 7.68 cm in females. The independent t test was done to compare the two sets of means and P value was less than 0.008 (p<0.05) which proves to be statistically significant. Conclusion:  The present study revealed that the sex of human mandible can be assessed by using metrical parameters as an additional tool to establish the identity of a person. Keywords:  Mandible, Sex determination, Bigonial width, Bicondylar width