THE MORPHOMETRIC PARAMETERS OF FORAMEN MAGNUM USED TO DETERMINE THE BODY STATURE – A COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHIC STUDY

Abstract

Foramen magnum is an important anatomical feature of human skull, but its anthropological importance is under assessed. Few studies done in the past which were tried to correlate the morphometric values of foramen magnum in the gender identification. Very few researchers tried to emphasis on the estimation of body stature through the anteroposterior and transverse dimensions of foramen magnum whereas a lot of data available in the relation of body stature and morphometry of long bones. Stature estimation is an important early step during forensic analysis of human skeletal remnants. The aim of this study was to obtain Pearson’s correlation coefficient formula for estimating stature from the dimensions of foramen magnum of a North Indian population. This study includes 799 patients who were came to Radio-diagnosis OPD for CT scan imaging of Head neck region. The correlation was derived from transverse and anteroposterior dimensions of foramen magnum. The result of this study showing strong positive correlation of anteroposterior dimension of foramen magnum and body stature so the anteroposterior dimension can be used as better tool for stature estimation. This will be very helpful for the identification of the skeletal remain found in natural disasters, war fare, nuclear explosions etc.

Keywords: foramen magnum, stature, gender identification, morphometry, CT scan imaging.