Sex determination from femoral head measurements: a new approach.

Attempts to update techniques of sex determination are always made by the researchers in the field. One such study is presented on the femur head. The method has not so far been used. Two basic ingredients have been postulated on which the study is based. One is that the 'eye judgment' has been found to be redundant and produce faulty results. The second is that all measurements are taken in anatomical position and thereafter anatomical landmarks are identified for better comparable reproducibility. The study was conducted on 280 adult femora of known age, race and sex from a collection at the Medicolegal Institute, in central India. Four measurements were taken that were subjected to SPSS discriminant function analysis. An index was also calculated. Results indicated maximum vertical and horizontal diameter as best single discriminators each attaining accuracy of 92.1%.