Luiz Airton Saavedra de Paiva

SEXING THE HUMAN SKULL THROUGH THE MASTOID PROCESS

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the significance for sex determination of the measurement of the area formed by the xerographic projection of 3 craniometric points related to the mastoid process: the porion, asterion, and mastoidale points. METHOD Sixty skulls, 30 male and 30 female, were analyzed. A xerographic copy of each side of the skull was obtained. On each xerographic copy, the craniometric points were marked to demarcate a triangle. The area (mm ) of the demarcated triangle for each side of the skull (right (D) and left (E) sides) was determined, and the total value of these measures (T) was calculated. RESULTS Concerning the right area of the male and female skulls, 60% of the values overlapped; for the left area, 51.67% overlapped, and for the total area, 36.67% overlapped. The analysis of the differences between the sexes in the areas studied was significant for the 3 areas. Regarding the total area, which is the preferred measurement because of the asymmetry between the sides of the skull, the value of the mean was 1505.32 mm for male skulls, which was greater than the maximum value obtained in the female skulls. The value of the mean for female skulls was 1221.24 mm , less than the minimum value obtained for the male skulls. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates a significant result in the 3 studied areas, (D), (E), and (T). The total area values show less overlapping of values between the sexes, and therefore can be used for sexing human skulls. For the population studied, values of the total area that were greater than or equal to 1447.40 mm belonged to male crania (95% confidence). Values for this area that were less than or equal to 1260.36 mm belonged to female crania (95% confidence).

Facial soft tissue thickness in the Brazilian population: New reference data and anatomical landmarks

Facial soft tissue thickness measurement can be useful among several medico-legal techniques that aim to establish the identity of skeletal remains. This study examined the soft tissue thickness that covered the faces of autopsied cadavers sent to the Medico-Legal Institute of Guarulhos from September 2010 to September 2011. Forty-nine anatomical facial landmarks were measured in cadavers less than 24h after death; these data were analysed using two-tailed t-tests. This project was approved by an ethics committee. One hundred cadavers were studied (74 males and 26 females). A majority of these individuals had died between 41 and 60 years old. Of the 49 anatomical landmarks, only five differed between the sexes (i.e., p-value less than 0.05): upper lip margin (p=0.006), superior labial sulcus (p=0.006), stomion (p=0.001), right lateral orbit (p=0.008), and left cheilion (p=0.009). The inclusion of additional anatomical landmarks allowed us to establish more precise facial thickness parameters that have the potential to be applied to cadaver facial approximations in Brazil; furthermore, some anatomic landmarks presented a higher discriminant power with regard to sex.

Autopsy-Proven Determinants of Immediate Fire Death in Lungs

In immediate fire deaths, pulmonary injury may be the main source of mortality, being important to document the histologic findings for the purpose of excluding other modes of death, such as from asphyxia with no gross findings. In this context, a group of morphologic determinants have been targeted with useful makers of pulmonary injury. To facilitate the determination of whether an individual was deceased before the start of a fire and validate the importance of parenchymal alterations in pulmonary injury in fire deaths, we studied lungs in victims of fire (N = 28) and suffocation (N = 40), creating a mathematical model using cluster analysis. For this purpose, a semiquantitative analysis of the distal parenchyma was performed to evaluate the amount of bronchiolar dilatation, overinsufflation (ductal and alveolar), collapse (ductal and alveolar), passive congestion, alveolar edema, and hemorrhage (interstitial and alveolar). These 7 histologic determinants were useful to discriminate fire (bronchiolar dilatation, ductal overinsuflation, alveolar overinsuflation, alveolar hemorrhage) from suffocation lung injuries (alveolar collapse, congestion, and edema). We conclude that these determinants should be included in the routine of forensic pathology.

Validation of a physical anthropology methodology using mandibles for gender estimation in a Brazilian population

UNLABELLED Validation studies of physical anthropology methods in the different population groups are extremely important, especially in cases in which the population variations may cause problems in the identification of a native individual by the application of norms developed for different communities. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to estimate the gender of skeletons by application of the method of Oliveira, et al. (1995), previously used in a population sample from Northeast Brazil. MATERIAL AND METHODS The accuracy of this method was assessed for a population from Southeast Brazil and validated by statistical tests. The method used two mandibular measurements, namely the bigonial distance and the mandibular ramus height. The sample was composed of 66 skulls and the method was applied by two examiners. The results were statistically analyzed by the paired t test, logistic discriminant analysis and logistic regression. RESULTS The results demonstrated that the application of the method of Oliveira, et al. (1995) in this population achieved very different outcomes between genders, with 100% for females and only 11% for males, which may be explained by ethnic differences. However, statistical adjustment of measurement data for the population analyzed allowed accuracy of 76.47% for males and 78.13% for females, with the creation of a new discriminant formula. CONCLUSION It was concluded that methods involving physical anthropology present high rate of accuracy for human identification, easy application, low cost and simplicity; however, the methodologies must be validated for the different populations due to differences in ethnic patterns, which are directly related to the phenotypic aspects. In this specific case, the method of Oliveira, et al. (1995) presented good accuracy and may be used for gender estimation in Brazil in two geographic regions, namely Northeast and Southeast; however, for other regions of the country (North, Central West and South), previous methodological adjustment is recommended as demonstrated in this study.