Right humerus; An equation to estimate the length from its fragments

Abstract

Introduction: Many professionals including anthropologists, medical scientists and anatomists had been using the anthropometric technique to estimate the body size since decades or even centuries. The study which we have conducted in North Karnataka of South Indian was to estimate the length of the right humerus from the dimension of proximal and distal segments of humerus using a regression equation. This is absolutely essential for archeologists, anthropologists and forensic investigators, even when a fragment of bone is available. The current study was therefore focused on the measurement of proximal and distal segments of humerus from which the length of the humerus was estimated. Materials and Methods: The maximum lengths of the right humeri (MHL) were measured and the mean values were calculated. The different measurements of proximal and the distal segments of 53 right humeri were noted and used in our study. Maximum length of humerus, vertical and transverse diameter of proximal segment, transverse diameter and biepicondylar width of distal segment were measured using anthropometric techniques. A regression equation was formulated to calculated the length of the entire humerus provided we can access the measurements of different fragments available. Results: With the measurements obtained analysis was done using descriptive statistics. Regression equation for right humeri was derived to estimate the length of the right humerus. On applying the regression analysis, among 53 right humeri, it was proved that, the vertical diameter of superior articular surface had significant role in estimating the maximum humeral length with maximum correlation coefficient of 0.94(p Conclusion: Thus we can conclude that the length of the right humerus can be estimated from the measures of proximal and distal segments of right humerus. Keywords: Regression equation, Right humerus, Estimation of length, North Karnataka.