الفهرس 
Introduction & Aim of the workOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Forensic anthropological identification of human remains and single bones includes estimation of the sex and stature. For this, the application of CT is useful for the documentation of skeletal data on routine autopsy, reconstruction for data analysis, objective measurements and reproducibility for reassessment. CT data analysis facilitates volumetric and radiographic density analyses. Furthermore, a recently developed automated analysis system markedly improved the performance and accuracy of three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction. The present study investigated virtual CT morphometry of lower limb bones,i.e. femur, tibia, fibula, 1st metatarsus and patella, to estimate the sex and stature using postmortem CT data from forensic autopsy.
Serial forensic autopsy cases of known sex, age, and stature were used: n = 259; 150 males of 19―95 (median, 52) years old, and 109 females of 20―97 (median, 62) years old for femur, tibia, fibula and first metatarsus. For patella, total n = 218; 100 males of 16–95 (median, 62) years old and 118 females of 26–97 (median, 63) years old. Postmortem CT (PM-CT) scans were routinely performed immediately before autopsy, employing a scanner (ECLOS, Hitachi Medical Co., Tokyo) with a 16×1.25 mm slice thickness.
Three dimensional images of bilateral lower limb bones, including the femur, tibia, fibula, patella and 1st metatarsus, were virtually reconstructed on the automated CT image analyzing system Volume Analyzer SYNAPSE VINCENT version 3 (FUJIFILM Medical Co., Ltd., Tokyo). Measured parameters were: 1- bone mass volume, 2- maximum length (vertical distance between proximal and distal endpoints), as well as 3- the mean CT density (HU) and 4- total CT value (mean HU×bone volume) for femur, tibia, fibula and 1st metatarsus. Also, 1- the maximum height, 2- maximum thickness, 3- mass volume, as well as 4- the mean CT density (HU) and 5- total CT value (mean HU×bone volume) were measured for the patella. These measurements were analyzed with regard to the individual sex and stature (body height measured at autopsy).
Reproducibility of automated 3-D reconstruction for each bone was 100.0%. Regarding the femur, tibia, fibula and first metatarsus; bone mass volumes, lengths and total CT attenuation values of bilateral femurs, tibias and fibulas correlated with the stature; however, the mean CT attenuation (HU) values showed age-dependent decreases.
Correlations with the stature were similar for the lengths and mass volumes of the femur, tibia and fibula (r = 0.77–0.85), but were higher for the mass volume of the first metatarsus (r = 0.77 for right and r = 0.58 for left). In addition, the ratio of the bone volume to the length of each bone showed the most significant sex-related differences (males>females with accuracy of 75.8–98.1%). Regression equations for stature estimation using the bone length (cm) and volume (cm3) were: 30.333+(0.309) femur length; 41.22+(0.359) tibia length; 36.537+(0.368) fibula length; and 123.649+(2.149) 1st metatarsal volume.