Estimating femoral length from proximal and distal femoral end parameters

The femur, the long bone most strongly correlated with stature, plays a crucial role in forensic identification. When only bone fragments are available, femoral length can be estimated using population-specific regression equations. This study aimed to estimate femoral length from measurements of the proximal and distal femoral extremities.

This study was conducted on 53 intact adult human femora from the Osteological Collection of the Department of Anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Serbia. We analyzed a total of eleven parameters of the proximal femoral extremity: proximal width, vertical diameter of the head, transverse diameter of the head, foveal longitudinal and transverse diameters, foveal depth, anterior and posterior neck length, vertical and transverse diameter of the neck and femoral neck-shaft angle. Seven parameters of the distal femoral extremity were also analyzed: intercondylar width and depth, anteroposterior diameter and width of both condyles and bicondylar width. Measurements were performed using an osteometric board, digital caliper and analog goniometer.

The length of the femur showed a statistically significant correlation (p < 0.05) with all observed parameters, except those related to the femoral head fovea, with the strongest correlation observed for the vertical diameter of the femoral head (r = 0.796). Simple and multiple linear regression equations were derived to estimate femoral length, with all models explaining a statistically significant proportion of the variance in femoral length, except for simple linear regression models based on foveal parameters.

The derived regression equations aid femoral length estimation, thereby supporting stature reconstruction and forensic identification.