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• Patella measurements were analyzed for sex estimation in contemporary Chinese. • An automatic measurement method was introduced. • Patella measurements can be utilized in sex estimation when the skull and pelvis are unavailable. Sex estimation is an important part of creating a biological profile, and ultimately assisting in creating a presumptive identification of unidentified skeletal remains. However, manual methods of anthropometric are time-consuming and prone to observer variability. The present study is an attempt to estimation of sex from automatic measurement of patella by multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) in a contemporary Chinese population. Four measurements for every patella, including maximum height (MAXH), maximum breadth (MAXB), maximum thickness (MAXT) and patellar volume (PV), were automatically provided by the software from CT image of 300 Chinese. The sample is composed of 156 males and 144 females with an average age of 41.44 and 45.68 years, respectively. The statistical analyses showed that all variables were sexually dimorphic. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to estimate sex from patella. The univariate analysis of each patellar parameter yielded a sex classification accuracy rate of 73.1% to 85.7%. The classification accuracy rates of sex estimation using the combination of the patellar parameters are 81.9% to 91.6%. This paper provides indications that the patella is important bone for sex estimation and it may be used as an alternative in forensic cases when the skull and pelvis are unavailable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]