Sexual dimorphism in various angles of north Indian hip bone- A rarely explored zone!

Abstract

Introduction: Identification of sex of the deceased is of prime importance for anatomists & forensic experts. Hip Bone is considered as the most ideal bone for studying sexual dimorphism due to the role of bony pelvis in child bearing. The present study aims to determine if there is any sex difference between the four angles of the hip bone, to bring the attention of anatomists to this less explored zone in morphometry of hip bones and provide a database for the North Indian population. Materials and Methods: The present study was performed on 100 Hip bones belonging to North Indian Region. Four angles of the hip bone were measured - Iliopubic angle, Ischio-Pubic angle, Ilio-Ischiatic angle and Angle of Torsion. All the results were statistically analysed. Results: On analysis of the results, while iliopubic & ilioischiatic angles were more in males, ischiopubic angle & angle of torsion measured more in females. However only ischiopubic angle was found to be significantly sexually dimorphic. No fixed pattern or significant difference was found with respect to side in any of these angles. Conclusions: Not much significance can be assigned to the sexual dimorphism between the angles of Hip Bone. While plenty of comparative data is available for discriminating a hip bone to be a male or female for a large number of other parameters of hip bone, there is relatively meager data available to compare any sexual dimorphism in its angles. Keywords: Iliopubic angle, Ischio-Pubic angle, Ilio-Ischiatic angle and angle of torsion, Hip bone, Sexual dimorphism, Iliopubic angle, Ischio-Pubic angle, Ilio-Ischiatic angle and angle of torsion, Hip bone, Sexual dimorphism.