A Study of Dermatoglyphic Patterns of Fingers in Patients with Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

Background: The myocardial infarction (MI), the most common manifestation of coronary artery disease remains as a major cause of mortality in both developed and developing countries. The people without known major risk factors can be screened for MI with a simple and cost-effective tool which will be helpful in developing countries to reduce the mortality. Dermatoglyphic patterns in clinical conditions have been studied so far and their relationship is established in the literature. Dermatoglyphics has been considered as a diagnostic tool in many diseases with genetic bases. Hence this study is conducted to analyse the correlation between dermatoglyphic features and MI, so that dermatoglyphics may be used as screening tool for MI. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 150 MI patients diagnosed with ECG or coronary angiography who were admitted in the Institute of cardiology, Madras Medical College, Chennai after obtaining clearance from Institutional ethics committee. 150 healthy consented volunteers were included as controls. The finger prints from both groups were taken by ink method and type of fingerprint patterns and total finger ridge count (TFRC) and absolute finger ridge count (AFRC) were studied. The correlation of the findings between cases and controls were analysed with t-test and Chi-square test using SPSS 13.0. Results: The frequency of loop, arch and whorls is 54.9%, 8.3% and 36.8% respectively in MI as compared to 59.4%, 13.2% and 27.4% respectively in controls. The frequency of whorls is increased in thumb, middle finger and little finger of both hands of the MI patients when compared with controls with statistically significant difference (p<0.005). The mean value of TFRC and AFRC is increased in cases than controls and statistically significant difference was observed for AFRC. Conclusion: Thus, our study has indicated the specific fingerprint patterns in MI and we hope this knowledge can be used for screening the people without known risk factors for MI. KEY WORDS: Fingerprint, Dermatoglyphics, Myocardial infarction, early diagnosis.