Introduction

In conditions of natural or manmade mass disasters, genocides or aircraft accidents where direct or positive identification of victims is difficult, there is a need for an accurate, timely, simple and inexpensive method of sex determination. For the purpose of identifying victims, one such method that has proved reliable is the use of high-resolution chest radiographs. A radiological examination of costal cartilage calcification using digital radiographs is an easy, fast, and low-cost method of determining sex. It may be a kind of screening test for subjects who need sex identification after puberty.

For the identification of any individual, there are characteristic biological factors. Bone being resistant to putrefaction and damage caused by animals can be used for identification and can help in the estimation of age, gender and race. For human identification by skeletal structure different identity procedures are provided in anthropology. With age, costal cartilages may undergo calcification which occasionally can be useful in establishing sex in forensic anthropology if the pelvic bones and skull are not available (Scheuer, 2002; Cunningham, 2016; Thompson and Black, 2006). This might occur for example with recently deceased dismembered remains, even though the definitive ascription of the sex of recent remains usually would be established by DNA analysis. Fischer was among the first to suggest that costal cartilage calcification may show a sex-related pattern (Fischer, 1995). This has been confirmed and studied further by several authors (Middleham, 2014; McCormick et al., 1985). The recent studies into sex determination based on costal cartilage calcification have visualized it using radiographs of the anterior chest wall.

King (1939) in his study emphasized the importance of using the word "calcification", as well as the distinction between calcified cartilage matrix and bone.

Sex identification is very important compared with age and race identification as it excludes almost half of the population. The most anthropological methods used for sex identification are directly measuring the skeletal remains. The most common problems for obtaining intact bones are trauma, disappearance and decomposition for diverse causes. The human thoracic region is relatively important in biological and forensic anthropological studies as it is active between adolescent growth and adult maturational and degenerative periods (Torwalt and Hoppa, 2005). As such, it presents a chance to get information with reference to personal identification during much of an individual’s lifetime and should be especially important when handling only partial remains, where sex determination and age estimation may become harder. Most anthropological methods for handling situations of questionable identity are developed to be used on dry bone and, at the very least, require a partially or defleshed body. While all individuals requiring a forensic examination are in some stage of decomposition, within the majority of situations these bodies are relatively intact. In such instances, it's going to be an easy procedure to initiate identification processes using fingerprints, visual confirmation, unique physical characteristics, dental records, or past medical procedures as evidence (Manigandan, 2015). However, in certain circumstances, the private parts may be too decomposed to use these techniques, or ante-mortem medical and/or dental records may be incomplete, inaccessible, or difficult to obtain. Thus, any technique that's ready to facilitate a rapid, simple, and cheap determination of sex is extremely important. Of particular relevance to the present study, is the determination of sex in forensic contexts from radiographs of the chest.