Sexual dimorphism from third cervical vertebra (C3) on lateral cervical radiograph: A 2-dimensional geometric morphometric approach

• Published in: Forensic imaging (Online) 2021-03, Vol.24, p.200441, Article 200441
• Main Authors: Fauad, Muhammad Faiz Mohd, Alias, Aspalilah, Noor, Ku Mastura Ku Mohd, Choy, Ker Woon, Ng, Wei Lin, Chung, Eric, Wu, Yuan Seng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Forensic Anthropology; Geometric Morphometric; Lateral Cervical Radiograph; Sexual dimorphism; Third cervical vertebra (C3)
• ISSN: 2666-2256; 2666-2256
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fri.2021.200441

Sex identification is essential for the establishment of an accurate biological profile from skeletal remains in forensic anthropology. Conventional method using calipers is time-consuming and associated with a high margin of error especially in the case of highly fragmented skeletal remains. Geometric morphometric method is an approach which utilizes qualitative and quantitative description of biological forms according to geometric definitions of their shape. This study aimed to determine sexual dimorphism of third cervical (C3) vertebra on the lateral cervical radiograph by geometric morphometric method. Lateral cervical radiographs of 432 samples comprising of 262 males and 170 females of known individuals were retrieved retrospectively. The samples were adult Malaysian population aged from 20 to 60 years old. Eleven 2-dimensional (2D) landmarks were applied on the digitalized radiographs by TPSDig2 (Version 2.31) software. Geometric morphometric analysis was performed by MorphoJ software. Procrustes ANOVA showed that centroid size and shape are significantly different with p