Sex determination using maxillary sinus

Individual identification is a subtle concept and often one of the most important priorities in mass disasters, road accidents, air crashes, fires, and even in the investigation of criminal cases. Matching specific features detected on the cadaver with data recorded during the life of an individual is an important aspect in forensics, and can be performed by fingerprint analysis, deoxyribonucleic acid matching, anthropological methods, radiological methods and other techniques which can facilitate age and sex identification. Sinus radiography is one such method that has been used for determination of the sex of an individual. Hence, an attempt is being made to use the different dimensions of the maxillary sinus in the determination of sex using coronal and axial sections of plain computed tomography (CT) scan.

A total of 30 patients including 17 male and 13 female, visiting the Outpatient Department of the Mamata General Hospital were included as the study subjects. The dimensions of right and left maxillary sinuses of 30 subjects from plain CT were measured using SYNGO software and statistical analysis was done.

Sex determination using height, length, width, and volume of the maxillary sinus on both sides showed statistically significant results with a higher percentage of sexual dimorphism in the case of volume.

Volume of the right maxillary sinus can be used as accurate diagnostic parameter for sex determination.