%0 Journal Article
%A Villoria Rojas, Catherine
%A Irurita Olivares, Javier
%A Mata Tutor, Pilar
%A Muñoz García, Alexandra
%A Benito Sánchez, María
%T Sternal human variability and population affinity: Frequency of discrete traits and their relationship with sex and age
%D 2021
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/99501
%X Sternal morphological variations differ among populations and are influencedby the interaction between inheritance, development, and environment. Thereare currently no studies that include all variability from a morphogenesisapproach following a homogeneous definition. The aims of this study were(a) to develop a standardized method for the anatomical study of the sternum;(b) to analyze the prevalence of the morphological variations and their relationshipbetween sex and age; (c) to compare the results with otherpopulations. The sterna of 155 skeletons from a Spanish population were studied.The age at the time of death was 17 to 97 years. We analyzed two metricand 22 sternal morphological variations described in the literature anddesigned an illustrated atlas. The atlas was validated using the intraclass correlationcoefficient (ICC). A descriptive statistical analysis was conducted tomeasure the prevalence and relationship between sex and age. To analyze theinterpopulation variability, we compared our results with those from otherauthors. The atlas with definitions and reference images improves the observationand detection of all morphological variations of the sternum (ICC = 0.90).The dependence between the morphological traits and sex was significant forthe variations in the sternal angle, the number of esternebra, and the developmentof the xiphoid process. No significant differences were found betweenage group and morphological traits. The expression of the sternal morphologicalvariation and sex are population-specific. The results will help standardizefuture studies and provide valuable information on the variability of the sternalmorphological variation.
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