Comparitive study of estimation of stature using carrea’s index and cephalic dimensions in young adults in north telangana population

Introduction: The stature prediction occupies relatively a central position in the identification necessitated by the medico legal experts or medical jurisprudence and also in the anthropological research. Assessing the height of an individual, from measurements of different parts, has always been of immense interest to forensic medicine experts. Tooth and skull are useful in providing valuable clues for forensics for intricate identification in stature estimation. Aims and objective: The present study was conducted to evaluate and compare the reliability of tooth and head dimensions in the estimation of stature of an individual. Material Methods: 300 subjects between ages 18-30 participated in the study. Stature was taken as standing height and measured using metric tape. They were subjected to carreas index for right lower hemi arch and measurements (arch and chord) were made with divider caliper for cephalometric skull dimensions. Head length was measured as occipitofrontal distance and breadth as maximum biparietal distance using cephalostat. Head circumference was measured using metric tape, data obtained was analysed using SPSS 20 software. Results: Males were taller and had higher mean arch and chord values. Male subjects had significantly greater maximum head length (P<0.05), maximum head breadth (P>0.05), head circumference (P<0.001), and stature (P<0.001) when compared to the females. Conclusion: When other body parts are not found, It is seen that Carrea’s formula shows good reliability and applicability of estimatimation of stature and head dimensions also are helpful completely in females in the estimation of stature.