Abstract
Objective
The purpose of the study was to establish baseline values for maxillary sinus volume
(MSV) and maxillary sinus index (MSI) among a population of Saudi adults and to test
the accuracy of using MSV and MSI for gender determination among the study samples.
Materials and Methods
Two hundred and seventy-five cone-beam computer tomographic (CBCT) images of adults
that satisfy the study criteria were recruited as the study samples. The CBCT images
were obtained from the patients' records in the CBCT database of the dental clinic
of King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. Maxillary sinus height (H), width
(W), and depth (D) were measured from the coronal, axial, and sagittal image views
using a vision iCAT software. The MSV and MSI were obtained by the mathematical formula
MSV = H*W*D*0.33 in cm3 and MSI = W/H. Data was analyzed using SPSS software, and a discriminant function
test was used to test for gender determination.
Results
Mean MSV was 12.67 mm ± 3.46, and mean MSI was 0.88. No statistically significant
difference was observed between the right and left (p > 0.05). There was strong gender dimorphism in both MSV and MSI in the samples. Males
have statistically higher mean (p = 0.001) MSV and MSI (p = 0.002). The discriminant function test shows an overall gender predictive accuracy
of 84% when MSV was used for gender determination and 77% when MSI was used.
Conclusion
Both MSV and MSI are good predictors for gender determination, but MSV is superior
and has higher accuracy.
Keywords
cone-beam computer tomography - gender dimorphism - gender determination - maxillary
sinus index - maxillary sinus volume
