Inter-racial and intra-rarcial gender characterization of eye shape among malaysian population in Shah Alam, Malaysia

The eye shape is of the most characteristics in the face and has been proven to have specific characteristics in some races. The aim of the current research is to study the gender and racial characteristics of the eye shape among the- Malaysian population (Malay/Chinese/Indian). This study included a total of 242 persons (121 males and 121 females) with age ranging from 18 to 40 years old, from the three main Malaysian races (Malay, Chinese and Indians (82, 80 and 80 respectively), without any craniofacial or oculofacial anomaly, disease or trauma. The eye width and intercanthal distance were measured to be used for determination of the shape of the eye. The studied measurements included interpupillary distance (IPD), inner intercanthal distance (ICD) and outer intercanthal distance (OCD). The mean measurements of OCD, ICD and IPD among Malaysian population are (89.06 mm, 85.89 mm), (32.27 mm, 31.25 mm) and (59.25 mm, 58.77 mm) in males and females respectively. There are significant intra-racial gender variations in the three Malaysian races in all measurements except the IPD that did not show significant gender variation. There are significant inter-racial gender variations in all measurements except the female IPD. It was concluded that in Malaysian races, the OCD and ICD are having significant inter-racial variation in both gender and also having a significant intra-racial gender variation while the IPD showed significant inter-racial variations only in males not in females and no intra-racial gender variation. These findings can be can be used for forensic identification purposes.