MULTI-SLICE COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY OF THE SEVENTH CERVICAL AND FIRST THORACIC VERTEBRAE AS A NEW TOOL FOR SEX IDENTIFICATION AMONG EGYPTIANS

Background: Biological profile (which includes sex, age, race, and stature) of human remains has an important role in forensic medicine and physical anthropology; sex is the most and first important parameter. Vertebrae exhibit morphological characteristics that make them easily identifiable if recovered from a scene. Previous studies proved sexual dimorphism of the seventh cervical and the first thoracic vertebrae, however, never investigated among Egyptians.Materials and Methods: Seven measurements (Maximum sagittal length (XSL), Length of the vertebral foramen (LVF), Maximum width of the vertebral foramen (WVF), Sagittal maximum body diameter (SBD), Maximum transverse diameter of the body (TBD), Maximum height of anterior vertebral body (XHA), Maximum height of posterior vertebral body (XHP)) were taken from computed tomography scans of the seventh cervical (C7) and first thoracic (T1) vertebrae of 112 Egyptians whom age was from 20 to 60 years with no vertebral or bone diseases. The statistical package for social science (SPSS version 21) was used for data analysis.Results: Males were proved to have statistically significant larger measurements than females (P > 0.005) for all measurements of C7 and T1, and sex could be determined at accuracy 84.4% and 89.3% for C7 and T1 respectively.Conclusion: This study showed significant difference in measurements of the seventh cervical vertebrae and the first thoracic vertebrae for sex discrimination so this can suggest that these two vertebrae could be added to other sex identifying tools in crime or death scenes for the Egyptian population.