Gender determination from sternum with computed tomography

Aim: One of the important areas of forensic science is identification studies. The most important point is to determine the identity of those who died in situations that may lead to mass deaths, such as natural disasters, wars, terrorist acts, and corpses that are highly deformed due to physical or chemical effects. One of the first stages of the identification process is gender determination. Our study aimed to investigate whether computed tomography images and metric measurements on the sternum can be used in gender determination. Materials and Methods: Measurements of the sternum were performed on the radiological images of a total of 650 cases, 325 male and 325 female, who applied to Manisa Celal Bayar University Hafsa Sultan Hospital between 01.01.2020 and 31.12.2022 and had a thorax CT scan for any reason. Logistic Regression and ROC Analyzes were applied to the data obtained. Results: As a result of the measurements and analyzes performed in our study, it was observed that the average values of men in all length, width, area and circumference measurements of the sternum were significantly higher than those of women (p<0.05). As a result of the ROC Analysis, the single parameter that most accurately classified female was manubrium sterni area with 81.5%, and the parameter that most accurately classified male was corpus sterni circumference with 87.1%, and as a result of the Logistic Regression Analysis, gender alone was It was found that the parameter with the highest correct prediction rate was corpus sterni circumference with 83.2%. As a result of the Binary Logistic Regression Analysis, it was determined that the model's correct prediction rate of gender was 88.8%. Conclusion: It has been observed that measurements performed on the sternum show dimorphic properties and can be used for gender determination. Unlike sternum studies in the literature, which focus on length, width and area measurements, we think that obtaining high correct classification rates in the circumference measurements made in our study can be a reference for new studies. We believe that metric analyzes performed on the sternum can be an important alternative for gender determination, especially in skeletal remains where the skull and pelvic bones are missing or severely deteriorated.