title: The lateral angle revisited: a validation study of the reliability of the lateral angle method for sex determination using computed tomography (CT).
abstract: This article presents the results of a validation study of a previously published method of sex determination from the temporal bone. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the lateral angle method for the internal acoustic canal for accurately determining the sex of human skeletal remains using measurements taken from computed tomography (CT) scans. Previous reports have observed that the lateral angle size in females is significantly larger than in males. The method was applied to an independent series of 77 postmortem CT scans (42 males, 35 females) to validate its accuracy and reliability. The mean lateral angle of the internal acoustic canal was found to be larger in females (46.5°) than in males (43.4°). However, the difference was not statistically significant and the sex differences reported in previous studies were not substantiated. In light of the observed results, the lateral angle method appears to be of minimal practical use in forensic anthropology and archeology.
authors: Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada, N6A 5C2.
authors: Jennifer
authors: J
authors: Morgan
authors: Niels
authors: N
authors: Lynnerup
authors: Robert D
authors: RD
authors: Hoppa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004424:Ear Canal / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D061330:Multidetector Computed Tomography; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D054881:Sex Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*; D013701:Temporal Bone / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: computed tomography; forensic anthropology; forensic science; internal acoustic canal; lateral angle; petrous portion; sex determination