Assessment of the sphenoid sinus volume in order to determine sexual identity, using multi-slice CT images

Gender determination is an important step in identification. For gender determination, anthropometric evaluation is one of the main forensic evaluations. The aim of this study is assessment of the sphenoid sinus volume in order to determine sexual identity, using multi-slice CT images.
For volumetric analysis, axial paranasal sinus CT scan with 3-mm slice thickness was used. For this study, 80 images (40 women and 40 men older than 18 years) were selected. For assessment of sphenoid sinus volume, Digimizer software was used. The volume of sphenoid sinus was calculated using the following equation: v=∑ (area of each slice × thickness of each slice). Statistical analysis was performed by indipendant T-test.
The mean volume of sphenoid sinus was significantly greater in male gender (P=0.01).The assessed Cut off point was 9/35 cm3, this means, 63.4% of volume assessments greater than cut off point supposed to be male and 64.1% of volumetry lesser than cut off point are female.
According to area under Roc curve (1.65%), sphenoid sinus volume is not an appropriate factor for differentiation of male and female from each other, which means predictability of cut off point (9/35 cm3 ) is 65/1% close to reality.