Ultrasonic measurement of facial tissue depth in a Northern Chinese Han population

Abstract

In forensic anthropology, facial soft tissue depth measurement is crucial for craniofacial reconstruction technology, which is based on the morphological features of human faces to rebuild appearances of decedents, helps forensic scientists to identify the nameless bone. We measured the facial tissue depth of 135 young subjects from northern China whereby revealing the relationship among tissue depth, sex and BMI as well as providing data for craniofacial reconstruction in forensic science. All the volunteers are healthy medical students including 64 males and 71 females. Ultrasound was used to measure 19 points across the face evenly distributed in 6 regions including the eye, nose, mouth, cheek, jaw and chin. Our results indicate that tissue thickness at 11 points of females and 11 points of males are related to BMI. A majority of points are thicker in females than those of males. Further comparisons with data of American and European population show an apparent diversity in both genders.