Can Orbital Cavity Be Used to Estimate Stature in Human Identification?

Abstract

Objectives: To establish the correlation between orbital measurements and the height of individuals of a Brazilian population for human identification and height estimation. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 100 patients of both sexes, from Brazil Northeast, who sought the radiology service of the Oswaldo Cruz University Hospital to undergo facial CT for other purposes. Sex and stature of each subject were obtained on this occasion. After data collection, the craniometric points were determined and tomographic measurements were taken, correlating the findings with the variables studied. Results: Sixty-four (64.3%) of the participants were male and 36 (35.7%) were female. Stature was significantly greater in men than in women. The two variables had positive coefficients and were significant (p < 0.001), with female sex being used as the reference. The coefficient of determination was 0.435, indicating a reasonable fit of the model to the data. The orbit measurements can be accurate on estimating male and female stature in 83%. Conclusion: The orbit is an effective parameter for the estimation of stature from images of bone remains for human identification, in which linear orbital measurements can be correlated with anthropometric data (sex, and stature). An equation was proposed for estimating a subject’s stature in the population studied.