title: Age, sex and body mass index in relation to calvarial diploe thickness and craniometric data on MRI.
abstract: It might be critical to determine sex, body mass and age of the individual from skull in forensic medicine and anthropology. Our purpose in this study was to evaluate whether a relationship existed between the diploeic bone thickness measured from glabella, bregma, lambda, opisthocranion, and euryon regions and sex, age and body mass index of the individual. Glabella-opisthocranion, vertex-basion, euryon-euryon, basion-opisthion length were also determined for the same purpose. The anthropological landmarks were determined on sagittal and axial T1-weighted sequences and measurements were obtained on a workstation by two radiologists. A total of 107 subjects (F/M:59/48; mean age: 45.05+/-15.28, age range: 21-81) were included in the study. The mean body mass index was 25.51+/-4.44 [17.50-41]. There was a statistically significant linear correlation between age and diploe thickness from glabella, bregma, lambda, opisthocranion, right and left euryon. There was sexual dimorphism in all craniometric data including the distance between glabella-opisthocranion, vertex-basion, euryon-euryon, basion-opisthion, and calvarial volume. There was a statistically significant linear correlation between body mass index and basion-opisthion length. The diploe thicknesses from certain points of the calvarium are statistically related to each other. A standard cerebral MRI examination would be sufficient to obtain anthropological landmarks and craniometric data. According to this study, it might be possible to identify age, sex and body mass index of the individual from diploeic thickness and craniometric data.
authors.affiliation: Ankara Numune Education and Research Hospital, Talatpasa Bulvari Samanpazari 06100, Ankara, Turkey. gulhatip@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Hatice Gul
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Hatipoglu
authors.forename: Hatice Nursun
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Ozcan
authors.forename: Ummuhan Sevgi
authors.initials: US
authors.lastname: Hatipoglu
authors.forename: Enis
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yuksel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000365:Age Determination by Skeleton; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002508:Cephalometry; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D054881:Sex Determination by Skeleton; D012886:Skull / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D055815:Young Adult