Morphological evaluation of cephalic index in Malay

Abstract

Cephalometry is an important tool in anthropometry. The results are used in paediatric, craniofacial surgery, forensic medicine, research and clinical diagnosis. Cephalic index is affected by geographical, gender, age and racial factors and it is an important parameter to find out the race and sex of unidentified remains. This study was conducted in UniKl RCMP, Ipoh, Perak, on 80 Malays, comprising of 40 males and 40 females. Due written consent was obtained from all subjects. Inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study were predefined. The measurements were taken by using fast display digital sliding caliper. The aim of this study was to take the maximum head length, maximum head breadth, and the cephalic index among Malays. Statistical analysis was done with SPSS 17.0 version to obtain the Mean ± SD .Difference between mean values in different gender were studied using t test and ANOVA. Level of significance was fixed at or below 0.05. The mean cephalic index for male was 79.55 and female was 79.97. Cranial phenotype was done based on cephalic index. The hyperbrachycephalic, dolichocephalic, mesocephalic and brachycephalic head shape were 30%, 25% 30%, 22.5%, 35% 12.5%, and 13%, 33%, in male and female respectively. This study will serve as basis of comparison for future cephalometric studies of Malay population in Malaysia.