2

In men and women, the Q angle is different. Typically, for men, the angle is around 12° while, for women, the angle Q angle is 17°.

enter image description here

As you can see from this image, if you were to connect the lines to form a triangle, there would be 3 points.

  • Point 1: the knee
  • Point 2: the greater trochanter
  • Point 3: some point to the left of the middle of the pelvis and to the right of the acetabulum

Obviously, a wider pelvis in women would naturally push the greater trochanter further away from the sagittal plane, which would make Q larger.

My question: Is this larger Q angle observed in women solely due to a wider pelvis?

Note, if the proportions of the male and female femurs were exactly the same if we controlled for height, then the Q angle difference should be due to exclusively the wider pelvis. Thus, based on simple geometry, if the Q angle is not strictly due to a wider pelvis, we should observed differences in the proportions of the femur's neck and shaft, controlling for height.

Stan Shunpike
  • 141
  • 2
  • 1
    If I understand your question correctly, the simplified version is this: Are male and female femurs anatomically similar when controlled for height? – Carey Gregory Dec 31 '21 at 01:49
  • @CareyGregory yep! you said it much better. Can I take your statement of the question and modify my own to make it clearer? – Stan Shunpike Dec 31 '21 at 02:05
  • Yeah, sure, you can always use/quote comments in a question or answer. – Carey Gregory Dec 31 '21 at 02:54
  • I wonder if this may be better suited at Biology.SE – Chris Rogers Jan 10 '22 at 06:23
  • Men and women have similar Q angles A CLINICAL AND TRIGONOMETRIC EVALUATION https://web.archive.org/web/20190227125817/http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/80b2/b70045977588a1bf2a7f6d8cd695c7ea046d.pdf – PassingBy Oct 31 '22 at 07:28

0 Answers0