Possible use of nasal septum and frontal sinus patterns to radiographic identification of unknown human remains

The aim of the present study was to examine the combined use of the nasal septum and frontal sinus pattern for systemic radiographic identification of unknown human remains and the limitations. Postmortem skull radiographs were collected in 209 forensic autopsy and 163 clinical cases. In total cases, a combined use of the nasal septum deviation patterns (straight, left, right, sigmoid, reverse sigmoid and rare types) and the frontal sinus patterns (aplasia, symmetry, left or right dominant asymmetry in combination with the number of lobulations) achieved a classification of at least 204 different types (incidence up to 5%). Comparison of the ante- and postmortem films (n=24) gave an identical result in about 75%. The cases of inconsistency suggested the influences of the positioning in radiographic examination, the quality of radiographs and the complicated structures of the nasal septum and frontal sinus as possible causes of missing identity.