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Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
[Estimation of the body length from the hand bones in adult subjects]
Abstract:
A method for estimation of the body length from the wrist bones in adult subjects is reported for the first time. Carpal, metacarpal, and phalangeal bone length in 108 skeletons of Caucasoid subjects (stored in the collections of the Department of Anthropology, M V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, and Museum of Anthropology, Sankt Peterburg State University) was measured to the nearest 0.1 mm by the method of R. Martin. The SPSS programs were used to calculate multiple regression equations allowing for the determination of the body length from the lengths of carpal bones (to the accuracy within +/- 46.1 mm), metacarpal bones 1-V (to the accuracy within +/- 56.7 to 48.6 mm), their combinations (to the accuracy +/- 49.1 to 47.9 mm), and the longitudinal size of radii I-V (to within +/- 50.8-44.4 mm). The precision of the estimation was as high as +/- 3.5 mm provided all the wrist bones were available for the measurement. It is concluded that the results of verification of this method may be applied in the practice of forensic medicine.
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