The nasal index in brazilian human skeletons

Aim: To investigate the percentage of correctness (PC) of the Nasal Index (NI) in human skeletons for determination of sex, ancestry and estimation of age in the Brazilian population. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 173 human skulls belonging to the Piracicaba Dental School. 93 skeletons were males and 80 females; 34 were aged up to 39 years, 56 between 40 and 59 years, and 83 60 years or older; 96 were from white individuals, 49 were from mixed-race and 28 from black individuals. High-precision digital caliper was used to measure nasal height (NH=ANS-nasion) and the maximum nasal width (NW) values, which were applied into the formula NI=NW/NHx100. The data were submitted to discriminant analysis and Student’s t test with equal variances, Mann-Whitney, F (ANOVA), Tukey and Kruskal Wallis, 5% significance level. Results: Dominant nasal type in the Brazilian population was the mesorine. Males showed nasal height and width values greater than those of females, with statistically significant differences in all measurements (p≤0.021) and PC of 76.6%. Similar nasal measurements were found regardless of age (p>0.05), with PC of 41.7%. Ancestral analysis revealed that black individuals have greater nasal width (26.35) and nasal index (53.67) than white ones (24.60 and 49.25), while mixed-race individuals showed intermediate values (25.36 and 52.13) (p