ROLE OF PUBIS IN SEXUAL DIMORPHISM OF HIP BONE-A MORPHOMETRIC STUDY IN NORTH INDIAN POPULATION

Abstract

Background: Different bones of the human skeleton present age-, sex-and race-related dissimilarities, so that using visual criteria & metric techniques, age, sex, and race of an individual can be estimated from these bones. One such bone is the hip bone whose characteristic morphology makes it interesting from anatomical, anthropological, and forensic point of view. Its features are important not only for the anatomist but also for the anthropologist, for population studies & for forensic experts for specimen recognition and gender determination of skeletal remains. The three constituent parts of hip bone i.e ilium, ischium and pubis depict different gender specific features. The pubis showing pubertal changes first of all are being considered in this article. Its different parameters will be definitely helpful to anatomists, anthropologists & forensic experts in their respective fields. Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted on 100 adult undamaged human hip bones, (M:F=80:20, R:L= 50:50) obtained from the Department of Anatomy, Government Medical College, Amritsar. The various dimensions of the pubis measured were (1) Mid Pubic Width, (2) Length of Pubic Crest, (3) Length of Pubic Bone, (4) Length of Pubic bone upto acetabulum. The observations were statistically evaluated to find out sex & side related differences. Results: All the pubic parameters measured were significantly larger in female bones as compared to male bones, except the mid pubic width. However no significant side specific pattern could be determined in either sex. Conclusions: There is a relative paucity of region specific data for the various parameters of pubis in the accessible literature. Thus the present study advocates the significance of pubis in sexual dimorphism, for sex determination & provides reference values for the North India region.