Sex determination by discriminant analysis of patella measurements

The authors have analyzed 80 skeletons (40 males and 40 females) from the collection at the Institute of Legal Medicine of the University of Bari belonging to a known contemporary Southern Italian population; time of death was around 1970 and ages ranged from 25 to 80 years. Seven measurements taken on 80 intact, undeformed right patellae (max height, max width, thickness, height and width of the external facies articularis, height and width of the internal facies articularis) were used to determine sex by multivariate discriminant analysis. One function associating two parameters (max width and thickness) obtained the highest value of correct sex determination with a rate of 83.8%; other functions showed a higher percentage of misclassification (up to 17.5%). This study tests the success rate of correct sex prediction based exclusively on patellar dimensions. The discriminant functions carried out by statistical analysis may aid the forensic anthropologist when no other human skeletal remains suitable for sex determination are available. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.