Reconstruction of femur length from its proximal fragments in a Bulgarian modern population

Estimation of stature from bones has anthropological and forensic importance. It is well known that the intact femur has the highest correlation with stature. However, the intact femur is not always recovered in forensic cases. The current study introduces a method of estimating the length of femur from partial proximal elements specific to the Bulgarian population. One-hundred and forty adult femora belonging to known age and sex were studied. The method is based on several landmarks and distance between them, such as vertical head diameter, transverse diameter of the head, maximum head diameter, head circumference, sagittal subtrochanteric diameter, transverse subtrochanteric diameter and supero-inferior neck diameter. Simple and multiple linear regressions were obtained to define these estimates. For males, regression formula, which included head circumference measurement, provided the best fit of the data, resulting in the highest correlation and lowest standard error of estimate compared with all other variables. For females, the vertical diameter of the head showed the best correlation with maximum length. A combination of all variables into a single equation only improved the standard error of the estimate. The regression formula suggested that the proximal end is the best estimator of femur length. The derived formulae are population and sex specific.