Sex Determination By Using Cone Beam Computed Tomography Of Maxillary Sinus In Han And Uyghur Population In Xinjiang

Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the gender of human beings by using three-dimensional measurements of maxillary sinus obtained from Cone Beam Computed Tomography(C BCT)images and evaluate the potential structural differences between Han and Uyghur races in Xinjiang,China.It also aimed to establish the gender estimation equation for future use of forensic purposes.Methods: According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria,252 patients(including 63 Uygur men and 63 Uygur women,63 Han Chinese men and 63 Han C hinese women,aged 20-60 years)were retrospectively selected at the Department of Oral Radiology,the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University from June 2015 to Dece mber 2016.The length,width and height of the maxillary sinus were defined according to the Tambawala method.The length,width and the height of the maxillary sinus were measured and the data were analyzed by SPSS 23.0.Results: The results of the current study show that the size of the maxillary sinus in females is quite smaller than that of males in Han and Uygur nationality.A significant difference was found in the width,height,and length of the maxillary sinus between the two genders(P<0.05).Among them,the accuracy rate of using the right maxillary sinus inference equation was 77.8%(male)and 79.3%(male)in the Han nationality.The accuracy of using the left maxillary gender inference equation was 76.2%(male)and 85.7%(female).In the Uygur population,the accuracy of using the right maxillary gender inference equation was 79.4% for both men and women.The accuracy of using the left maxillary gender inference equation was 81.0%(male)and 77.8%(female),respectively.The results show that fo r the Han race,the height of the left maxillary sinus was the most reliable parameter for sex determination whereas for the Uyghur race,the length of the left maxillary sinus was the most significant.Conclusions: The use of the maxillary sinus for gendered inference is a simple and reliable method that can be used as a complement to forensic identification when other traditional methods of individual identification are not available.