Objective: To assess rugoscopy for identification of gender in a subset of Karachi population
Study design: A Cross sectional Comparative study
Place and duration: Dental O.P.D of Ziauddin Hospital Clifton, Karachi from July 2016 -2017
Methodology: A sample size of 456 individuals aged between 15 and 55 years fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited for the study. The shapes and size of rugae were evaluated on dental casts by classification given by the Kapali et al and Thomas et al respectively. Chi-square test was used to see gender dimorphism in rugae shapes and Mann Whitney U test was used for gender dimorphism in rugae size. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. The equation given by Bharath et al. was used to determine gender of an individual.
Results: A significant gender dimorphism in rugae shape among Karachi population was observed. The most common rugae shape in males was found to be wavy followed by straight, curved, convergent, divergent and circular rugae. However, the most common rugae shape among females was found to be curved followed by wavy, straight, divergent, convergent and circular rugae. On observing the size of rugae significant gender dimorphism was reported for secondary rugae (p- value= 0.045). The overall percentage of gender prediction by rugoscopy was 45.6 %
Conclusion: Rugoscopy have potential for gender identification and thus may be used for gender identification as an ancillary and supplemental tool in forensic investigation.
Key words: Rugoscopy, Gender Identification, Forensic identification
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