Age and sex estimation by knee roentgenographic assessment: An Egyptian population study

Abstract

Epiphyseal plates union gives valuable information about age. The knee joint is an articulation of three long bones so it is an important anatomical site to be considered and it can help for assessment of the age group of 10–20 years particularly. Also the knee can carry important information for sex identification through measuring the femur bicondylar distance and various patellar dimensions. The aim of this study is to assess the value of radiographic knee examination for estimation of age and sex in Egyptian population. Age identification is studied in correlation to the epiphyseal union of distal end of femur, proximal end of tibia, proximal end of fibula and the total score of the knee joint (SKJ). Sex identification is studied in relation to the femur bicondylar distance, patellar breadth, length, depth and volume. Our study included a random sample of 146 knee radiographs from patients who visited Beni Suef university hospital radiology center for diagnostic causes. All the subjects from both sexes aged from 10 to 20 years. Results showed that SKJ has the best correlation to age in comparison to each individual bone score alone for both male (r = 0.92) and female (r = 0.89) subjects with accuracy of 58%. Females showed earlier growth that is statistically insignificant. The femur bicondylar distance showed statistically significant sexual dimorphism with a mean value of 73.92 mm in males and 65.68 mm in females, accuracy is 79.4%. But the patellar sexual differences are statistically insignificant.