IN DIFFERENT STATURE GROUPS: BODY HEIGHT ESTIMATION BASED ON TIBIAL LENGTH IN SOUTH INDIAN POPULATION

Reena Agarwal, E. Prabhakar Reddy.

Abstract


Long bone length is one of the best-known indicators of human stature. Although the long bone length/height ratio differs in tall and short individuals, no detailed study has investigated whether specific formulae should be used to calculate height in different stature groups. Stature estimation is an important part of the identification process of human skeletal remains or body parts to establish individuality of an unidentified dead, body or any mutilated part of such body by the Medico-legal expert. The present study made an attempt to estimate the stature from per-cutaneous tibial length (PCTL) by formulating simple regression equation and multiplication factor  for people.This study proposes a new height estimation method. Body height and tibia length were measured in 150 male subjects aged 18.0 –34.6 years. Three subgroups were established according to body height (short, medium, or tall), using the 15th and 85th percentiles as cutoff levels. The general formula and a group-specific regression formula were used to estimate height in each subgroup. A control group with the same properties as the study group was analyzed in the same manner. Particularly with “short” and “tall” subjects, the difference between true height and the height predicted by the groupspecific formulae was smaller than the difference observed when the general formula was used. These discrepancies were statistically significant. When estimating height based on tibia length, the individual’s general stature category should be taken into consideration, and groupspecific formulae should be used for short and tall subjects. The regression formulae reported here have important applications in forensic science for identification of unknown human remains, particularly partial, mutilated and dismembered ones


Keywords


Tibia length; stature estimation; body proportions; Percutaneous Tibial Length , Height Estimation.

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References


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