Sex determination from vertical diameter of femoral head in Gujarati population

Introduction: Femur is the longest and strongest bone in human body. Determination of sex is relatively easy if the entire skeleton is available for examination. In the absence of skull and pelvis long bones either individually or in combination has been used for determining sex. Material and methods: Present Study was carried out on 141 human femora (115 male, 26 female) of known sexes in Anatomy Department, M. P. Shah Government Medical College, Jamnagar, Gujarat by using demarcating point method. Vertical diameter of femoral head is the straight distance between the highest and deepest point of the femoral head. Results: Average vertical diameter of femoral head of right male femur was 44.07 mm, average vertical diameter of femoral head of right female femur was 39.50 mm, average vertical diameter of femoral head of left male femur was 44.22 mm and average vertical diameter of femoral head of left female femur was 39.07 mm. Demarcating point method identified 0% right and 5% left male femur correctly as male. Demarcating point method also identified 25% right and 21.43% left female femur correctly as female. Conclusion: Mean Vertical diameter of femoral head of male femur is more than female femur in the Gujarati population of present study. Findings of the present study may be useful in medico legal cases for estimation of sex from available fragmentary femora. The study can also be useful to anatomist & physical anthropologist.