Sex estimation from coxal bones using deep learning in a population balanced by sex and age.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_62FDE72D50F8
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Sex estimation from coxal bones using deep learning in a population balanced by sex and age.
Journal
International journal of legal medicine
Author(s)
Epain M., Valette S., Zou K., Faisan S., Heitz F., Croisille P., Fracasso T., Fanton L.
ISSN
1437-1596 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0937-9827
Publication state
In Press
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: aheadofprint
Abstract
In the field of forensic anthropology, researchers aim to identify anonymous human remains and determine the cause and circumstances of death from skeletonized human remains. Sex determination is a fundamental step of this procedure because it influences the estimation of other traits, such as age and stature. Pelvic bones are especially dimorphic, and are thus the most useful bones for sex identification. Sex estimation methods are usually based on morphologic traits, measurements, or landmarks on the bones. However, these methods are time-consuming and can be subject to inter- or intra-observer bias. Sex determination can be done using dry bones or CT scans. Recently, artificial neural networks (ANN) have attracted attention in forensic anthropology. Here we tested a fully automated and data-driven machine learning method for sex estimation using CT-scan reconstructions of coxal bones. We studied 580 CT scans of living individuals. Sex was predicted by two networks trained on an independent sample: a disentangled variational auto-encoder (DVAE) alone, and the same DVAE associated with another classifier (C <sub>recon</sub> ). The DVAE alone exhibited an accuracy of 97.9%, and the DVAE + C <sub>recon</sub> showed an accuracy of 99.8%. Sensibility and precision were also high for both sexes. These results are better than those reported from previous studies. These data-driven algorithms are easy to implement, since the pre-processing step is also entirely automatic. Fully automated methods save time, as it only takes a few minutes to pre-process the images and predict sex, and does not require strong experience in forensic anthropology.
Keywords
Forensic anthropology, Machine learning algorithms, Sex prediction, Sexual dimorphism
Pubmed
Create date
13/06/2024 16:01
Last modification date
14/06/2024 7:03
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