title: Anthropometric correlations between parts of the upper and lower limb: models for personal identification in a Sudanese population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Identification of a deceased individual is an essential component of medicolegal practice. However, personal identification based on commingled limbs or parts of limbs, necessary in investigations of mass disasters or some crimes, is a difficult task. Limb measurements have been utilized in the development of biological parameters for personal identification, but the possibility to estimate the dimensions of parts of limbs other than hands and feet has not been assessed. The present study proposes an approach to estimate the dimensions of various parts of limbs based on other limb measurements.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included 320 Sudanese adults, with equal representation of men and women. Nine limb dimensions were measured (five based on the upper limb, four based on the lower limb), and extensive statistical analysis of the distribution of values was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that all of the measured dimensions were sexually dimorphic and that there was a significant positive correlation between the dimensions of various parts of limbs. Regression models (direct and stepwise) were developed to estimate the dimensions of parts of limbs based on measurements pertaining to one or more other parts of limbs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study revealed that the dimensions of parts of the upper and lower limb can be estimated from one another. These findings can be used in medicolegal practice and extended to constructive surgery, orthopedics, and prosthesis design for lost limbs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, National Guard Health Affairs, Mail Code: 3127, P.O. Box 3660, Riyadh, 11481, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. drahmedal@gmail.com.|Anatomy Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum, P.O. Box 102, Khartoum, Sudan. drahmedal@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Altayeb Abdalla
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Ahmed
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D035002:Lower Extremity / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008297:Male; D054881:Sex Determination by Skeleton; D013397:Sudan; D034941:Upper Extremity / Q000033:anatomy & histology*
keywords: Anthropometry; Forensic; Lower limb; Regression model; Sexual dimorphism; Upper limb