Talus measurements as a diagnostic tool for sexual dimorphism in Egyptian population

Abstract

Measurements of talus have been shown to be sexually dimorphic in South African blacks and whites and Prehistoric New Zealand Polynesians. Since several studies have demonstrated that discriminant function equations used to determine the sex of a skeleton are population specific, the purpose of the present study was to derive similar equation for the tali of Egyptians. The sample consisted of 110 tali (67 male & 43 female) whose age at death ranged between 20 and 60 years. The tali were obtained from Anatomy departments of Minia and Cairo Universities and also from Forensic Medicine department of Justice Office in Minia governates – Egypt. Twelve measurements were taken for every talus. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 16. All measurements showed significant sexual differences (P < 0.05) except calcaneus articular surface width and navicular articular surfaced width. Talar length was found to be the most sexual dimorphic (90.9%). Combination of talar length, talar width and neck width gave a percentage of accuracy of 85.5%. Finally, it is concluded that the talus of Egyptian population is useful for sex estimation.