International Journal of Anatomical Sciences 2012, 3(1): 08-11

Research Article

A Study of Dermatoglyphic Patterns in Myocardial Infarction

Rekha P, Senthil Kumar S.

Department of Anatomy, Sri Ramachandra Medical college and Research Institute, Sri Ramachandra University, Porur, Chennai-600 116, Tamil Nadu, India.

Key Words: dermatoglyphic patterns, genetic susceptibility, fingerprints & myocardial infarction.

 Abstract: Coronary Artery Disease is the most important cause of morbidity and mortality in the world. The knowledge of major risk factors and its relation with genetic  susceptibility  serves  as  a  screening  tool  in  prevention  of  Myocardial Infarction. Fingerprint patterns of both hands were observed among 75 Myocardial Infarcted subjects and equal number of healthy subjects. This study showed that tented arch pattern in index fingers of both the hands has been well observed in Myocardial Infarcted subjects thus serving as an indicator of genetic susceptibility in the incidence of Myocardial Infarction.

 Abbreviations Used: MI – Myocardial Infarction.

 The types of fingerprint are unique based on the genetic characteristics of each individual.   Dermatoglyphics (from ancient Greek word derma-means skin, glyph-means carving)  is  the  scientific  study  of fingerprints.   In humans and animals, these dermatoglyphic patterns are present on fingers, palms, soles and gives insight into a critical  period  of  embryogenesis  between four weeks and five months, when the architecture of major system is developing (Cummins   et   al.,   1961).   Generally,   the pattern of fingerprint is  divided into three types namely arch, loop and whorl (Fig.1). The arch type is divided to two subgroups: simple  and  tented  and  the  loop  type  is divided to two subgroups: radial and ulnar. The   whorl   type   is   divided   into   five subgroups as simple, central packed loop, twinned loop, lateral packed loop, and accidental. In general population, the line pattern consists of arch type, 4% loop type  55% and whorl type 41% respectively. An extensive report has been published with regard  to  the  relation  of  skin  lines  and various diseases for example Down’s syndrome, Schizophrenia, constipation, congenital hypodentia and bile ducts atresia. Dermatoglyphic features have been associated with numerous medical disorders (Schaumann & Alter, 1973). These associations have generated considerable interest in clinical medicine in light of their potential for providing inexpensive   and noninvasive screening methods for certain disease as well as insight into the etiology of disease. The alleles that occur on different chromosomes,  has  been  suggested  by  the fact that several medical and congenital chromosomal disorders produce specific alterations of fingertip patterns (Rashad  et al., 1978).

 Myocardial infarction (MI) commonly known as a heart attack is the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart causing myocardial necrosis. This is most commonly due to occlusion of a coronary artery following the rupture of a vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque. This cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality in the  world.  Early  detection  and  screening tools are highly essential to prevent this disease thereby dermatoglyphics emerges as a clinical instrument and genetic tool of significance. High heritability, high degree of individual variations and permanence or unchanging morphology throughout post- natal life makes the dermatoglyphic pattern as   an   excellent   prognostic   and   genetic marker (Rashad et al., 1975). Takashina et al., (1966) strongly suggested that an extensive analysis of palmar dermato- glyphics in patients as well as their relatives would materially aid in the study of the genetics of congenital heart disease thereby, dermatoglyphics is emerging as a clinical instrument and genetic tool of significance. This study was conducted to investigate the relation between the dermatoglyphic pattern as indicator of genetic susceptibility in patients with Myocardial Infarction.

 Materials and Methods

 This study was conducted in the Departments of Cardiology and Anatomy at Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Sri Ramachandra University,  Chennai.  The  fingerprints  of both the hands were obtained from 75 subjects with diagnosis of Myocardial Infarction who were admitted to Coronary Care Unit taken as group one and 75 healthy subjects as control, group two. The subjects were aged between 21 years to 75 years. The prior informed consent was taken from both the   groups   for   taking   the   prints.   The materials used for taking fingerprints were rollers, printers’ ink, and cotton, sterilium, and  magnifying  glass  lens  and  proforma sheets. The data were statistically analyzed by chi square test.

Fig. 1 Types of Finger Print Patterns

Results

The loop, whorl, arch and tented arch patterns were the main patterns studied and their incidence and predominance of the pattern were observed in both the groups respectively (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3). The statisti- cally significant observations were obtained on the left index and left middle finger only in both the groups.

Fig. 2 Finger Print of Control Group

T – Thumb, I – Index, M – Middle, R – Ring, L – Little fingers

Loop: Out of total 150 subjects the loop pattern was observed higher in control group than that of Myocardial Infarction group. Radial loop Pattern was about 16% in Myocardial Infarction group and 3% in Control group and the ulnar loop was about  94%  in  Myocardial  Infarcted  group  with 58% in control group.

Whorl: This pattern was significantly observed in about 60% of Myocardial Infarcted group and 58% in control group. The incidence of whorl pattern was higher in right index finger of control group and left index finger of Myocardial Infarcted group.

Arch: It was found that 21% of the Myocardial Infarcted subjects have arch pattern in thumb, index, middle and ring fingers. In contrast only 8% of the control groups have this arch pattern. Interestingly this pattern was absent in little finger of both the groups.

T – Thumb, I – Index, M – Middle, R – Ring & L

– Little fingers

Tented Arch: The tented arch fingerprint is significantly increased in patients with Myocardial Infarction in contrast to control groups (6.7% versus 1.3%). It is pertinent to note that the MI subjects have tented arch only  in  index  finger  of  both  the  hands. (Table 1 & 2). Contrarily control subjects have tented arch pattern in the index & middle finger. Thus our study presented an interesting fact that the tented arch pattern compared  to  whorl,  loop  and  arch  type proves  to  be  more  associated  with Myocardial Infarction.

Table 2 Finger print patterns seen on the left hand

Rekha and Senthilkumar – Dermatoglyphic patterns in Myocardial Infarction