Abstract

Introduction: Skull is more represented and reported to forensic experts for the identification of a person. Stature is an important biological profile to help to confirm the absolute identification of a person. The judicial authority still consider stature estimation to confirm the identity. Even though many studies are available from the long bones, the challenge arises when long bones are not available and the formulae derived from these were limited applicable to fragmentary skeletal remain. Hence, we have undertaken the study, for the estimation of stature from the length of cranial sutures.

Methodology: The study conducted at the tertiary health care institute in South India. This is a prospective observational study and includes 210 cases out of 229 autopsy cases conducted from December 2016 to December 2018. Out of 210 cases males were 160 (76.19%) and females were 50 (23.81%).

Result: The age of cases was ranging from 21 years to 60 years and their mean stature was 162.953 cm. The correlation coefficient (Pearson’s correlation, R) of total samples for coronal suture length (CSL) and sagittal suture length (SSL) were 0.326 and 0.308 respectively with the stature of deceased (STAD). The results showed, the cranial sutures are weakly correlated with stature in males and the linear regression equation could not be derived for males. The coronal suture showed the moderate correlation with stature in females (R = 0.300) and the regression equation derived. The coronal and sagittal sutures showed a moderate correlation with stature in total samples and regression equations derived.

Conclusion: The formulae derived are limited to the South Indian population and applicable only when the sex is not identifiable or other long bones are not available. This study was helpful when the skull, head, and vault with cranial suture were available as a fragmentary bone.

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