Estimation of body height from spinal length measurements using post-mortem computed tomographic images
- Author:
Tawfiq Yousef Tawfiq Zyoud
1
Author Information
1. Department of Imaging, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor.
- Collective Name:Saiful Nizam Abdul Rashid; Subapriya Suppiah; Rozi Mahmud; Abubakar Kabeer; Rosliza Abd Manaf; Ezamin Abdul Rahim
- Publication Type:Other Types
- Keywords:
Cadaver;
computed tomography;
autopsy;
regression analysis;
body height
- From:The Malaysian Journal of Pathology
2020;42(3):423-431
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Introduction: Post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) provides information that helps in the
determination of the cause of death and corpse identification of disaster victims. One of the methods
for corpse identification includes assessment of the body stature. There is a lack of post-mortem
imaging studies that focus on the anthropometric assessment of corpses. Our aim was to identify
the relationship between cadaveric spine length and autopsy length (AL) among and autopsy
length (AL) among a Malaysian population and derive a regression formula for the estimation of
corpse body height using PMCT. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively assessed 107 cadavers
that had undergone conventional autopsy and PMCT. We made 5 measurements from the PMCT
that included cervical length (CL), thoracic length (TL), lumbosacral length (LS), total column
length of the spine, excluding the sacrum and coccyx (TCL), and ellipse line measurement of the
whole spine, excluding the sacrum and coccyx (EL). We compared these anthropometric PMCT
measurements with AL and correlated them using linear regression analysis. Results: The results
showed a significant linear relationship existed between TL and LS with AL, which was higher in
comparison with the other parameters than the rest of the spine parameters. The linear regression
formula derived was: 48.163 + 2.458 (TL) + 2.246 (LS). Conclusions: The linear regression formula
derived from PMCT spine length parameters particularly thoracic and lumbar spine gave a finer
correlation with autopsy body length and can be used for accurate estimation of cadaveric height.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first ever linear regression formula for cadaveric height
assessment using only post mortem CT spine length measurements.
- Full text:5.2020my01090.pdf
