Abstract
BackgroundDermatoglyphics has been used widely in fields of medicine as a non-invasive diagnostic tool and an early assessment of risk for certain medical conditions. It reflects disturbances in fetal development during early prenatal weeks 14–22 when fingerprints develop. Dermatoglyphic asymmetry has been used to measure developmental instability during a specific period of human fetal development. Thus, the present study was planned to investigate whether digital and palmar dermatoglyphics of chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDu) patients in Sri Lanka are different from healthy people.MethodsA case control study was carried out among CKDu patients (90 males, 90 females) from a CKDu endemic area and gender-matched two control groups; one group from a CKDu endemic region (90 males, 90 females) and another group from a CKDu non-endemic region (90 males, 90 females). Dermatoglyphics were obtained using photographic methods. Both qualitative and quantitative dermatoglyphic variables were defined and analyzed according to standard criteria. Both directional (DA) and fluctuating asymmetry (FA) were assessed.ResultsSeveral qualitative dermatoglyphic variables had significant association with CKDu. The triradii a1 variable was less evident in palms of CKDu cases in both genders when compared to both control groups. The FA of pattern discordance (right vs left hands) between CKDu cases and control group were significant in several digits. The FA of the ridge count was found significant in several digits, and also significant for A-B ridge count and total ridge count.ConclusionBased on these results, it is proposed that the mechanisms responsible for the development of CKDu might be associated with those responsible for FA observed in CKDu patients. Accordingly, a diagnostic tool based on FA could be developed for predicting risk prior to the development of CKDu.
Highlights
Dermatoglyphics has been used widely in fields of medicine as a non-invasive diagnostic tool and an early assessment of risk for certain medical conditions
Reliability of the dermatoglyphics analysis There was almost perfect agreement between the two observations in both digital dermatoglyphics (κ = 0.932 [95% CI, 0.84 to 1.02], p < .0005) and palmar dermatoglyphic patterns (κ = 0.912 [95% CI, 0.82 to 1.01], p < .0001)
A nearly exact agreement was observed between the two observations on ridge counting of D1 (ICC = 0.995 [95% CI, 0.992 to 0.997], p < .0001) and A-B A-B ridge count (RC) on R palm (ICC = 0.997 [95% CI, 0.994 to 0.998], p < .0001)
Summary
Dermatoglyphics has been used widely in fields of medicine as a non-invasive diagnostic tool and an early assessment of risk for certain medical conditions. Dermatoglyphics is the study of epidermal ridge patterns (fingerprints) on the skin of the fingers, palms, Wijerathne et al Journal of Physiological Anthropology (2020) 39:1 toes, and soles that commence during embryological development between the sixth and seventh week of intrauterine life, and are fully formed by the 21st week [6] It has been used widely in fields of anthropology, genetics, and medicine and as a valuable non-invasive diagnostic tool and early assessment of risk for certain medical conditions [7]. The relationship between different dermatoglyphic traits and various medical diseases have been widely evaluated, and the main hypothesis for support of this association is “if growth of the limbs is disturbed in very early fetal life, changes in the epidermal ridge configurations are likely” [8,9,10] It should be added, that both environmental and genetic factors do influence the development of dermatoglyphics [6, 10,11,12,13]. It was concluded that methodological issues may limit any interpretation of significant findings [7]
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