Search

The article presents a discussion related to unusual dermatoglyphic patterns associated with chromosomal abnormalities. Abnormal patterns of the dermal ridges in Down's syndrome have been well established. Recently unusual dermatoglyphic patterns, different from those in Down's syndrome, have been described as part of the phenotype accompanying other trisomic syndromes. In this article, the authors report the clinical, cytogenetic and dermatoglyphic findings in two patients with undifferentiated mental retardation.

Thirteen Iranian populations of diverse origin have been analyzed for qualitative dermatoglyphic features utilizing bilateral finger and palmar prints of 3,158 individuals. Bimanual differences were significant for some of the features examined, whereas sex differences were frequently nonsignificant. Interpopulational variation displayed significant heterogeneity for all of the features studied. Distance analysis and constructed dendrograms provided separation between populations in agreement with known ethnohistoric records for hypothenar triradii, and for palmar and finger patterns, but not for the terminations of the D-Line.

In summary, we are left with the conclusion that some innovative work has been done in the past two decades but that the bulk of the world literature in dermatoglyphics still reflects an almost total reliance on Cummins and Midlo, who, we must remember, were summing up the work of scholars prior to the time their book first appeared in 1943. We need to clearly understand biocultural implications of breeding populations from which we wish to draw a sample, and we must ask ourselves before we start new studies exactly what we wish to achieve. If the current methodologies have not been able to provide us with satisfactory answers, the time has surely come for scholars to devise new ways of critically looking at the enormous complexity of dermal ridges. The encouraging news is that our knowledge of human embryology is growing, molecular genetics is soaring forward, and our understanding of the complexities of patterns on the human skin may be greatly improved from what we learn about the embryology of dermal and epidermal tissue.

We analyzed bilateral palmar prints of 3,158 individuals from 13 Iranian populations of diverse origins for palmar pattern ridge counts. Right palms did not show greater counts than the left in the majority of the populations studied. Highly significant interpopulational variation was observed for most palmar areas of both males and females. Dendrograms of males and combined sexes showed a good fit with the ethnohistoric background of the populations studied. The results thus demonstrate variation in the palmar pattern ridge counts of populations of diverse origins and may be used as a good measure of population distance.

The work of Harold Cummins in dermatoglyphics is reviewed, in the areas of populational variability, twin studies, dermatoglyphics of non-human primates, and dermatoglyphic methodology.

Infection with the human cytomegalovirus has a teratogenic effect on the fetus during the first trimester of gestation as does rubella. Since unusual dermatoglyphic findings have been observed in infants with congenital rubella infection, the present study was designed to determine whether or not unusual dermatoglyphics occur in patients with cytomegalic inclusion disease of infancy. Analysis of dermatoglyphics in 15 infants with cytomegalic inclusion disease revealed unusual features in all infants. These features are reported here for the first time and are compared with dermatoglyphic findings in a normal population as well as with those of available parents of the infants.