title: Geometric morphometric analysis reveals sexual dimorphism in the distal femur.
abstract: An individual's sex can be determined by the shape of their distal femur. The goal of this study was to show that differences in distal femur shape related to sexual dimorphism could be identified, visualized, and quantified using 3D geometric morphometric analysis. Geometric morphometric analysis was carried out on CT scans of the distal femur of 256 subjects living in the south of France. Ten landmarks were defined on 3D reconstructions of the distal femur. Both traditional metric and geometric morphometric analyses were carried out on these bone reconstructions; these analyses identified trends in bone shape in sex-based subgroups. Sex-related differences in shape were statistically significant. The subject's sex was correctly assigned in 77.3% of cases using geometric morphometric analysis. This study has shown that geometric morphometric analysis of the distal femur is feasible and has revealed sexual dimorphism differences in this bone segment. This reliable, accurate method could be used for virtual autopsy and be used to perform diachronic and interethnic comparisons. Moreover, this study provides updated morphometric data for a modern population in the south of France.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire AMIS, UMR 5288 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 37 allée Jules Guesdes, 31000 Toulouse, France; Institut de l'appareil locomoteur, Hôpital Pierre-Paul Riquet, CHU Toulouse, France. Electronic address: cavaignac.etienne@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Etienne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cavaignac
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire AMIS, UMR 5288 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 37 allée Jules Guesdes, 31000 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Frederic
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Savall
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire AMIS, UMR 5288 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 37 allée Jules Guesdes, 31000 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Faruch
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire AMIS, UMR 5288 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 37 allée Jules Guesdes, 31000 Toulouse, France; Institut de l'appareil locomoteur, Hôpital Pierre-Paul Riquet, CHU Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Reina
authors.affiliation: Institut de l'appareil locomoteur, Hôpital Pierre-Paul Riquet, CHU Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chiron
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire AMIS, UMR 5288 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 37 allée Jules Guesdes, 31000 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Telmon
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005269:Femur / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D054881:Sex Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
keywords: Distal femur dimorphism; Forensic anthropology population data; Geometric morphometric analysis; Principal component analysis; Procrustes analysis