Palmar Dermatoglyphics in Heart Disease

Abstract

Palmar dermatoglyphic patterns on 44 patients with congenital heart disease were compared with patterns on 362 patients with acquired heart disease. Distal displacement (t" or multiple axial triradii) of the palmar axial triradii occurred with significantly greater frequency in the patients with congenital heart disease (64%), than in the patients with acquired heart disease (17%). Studies of the probability of the occurrence of these differences in palmar dermatoglyphics on a chance basis alone gave a value of less than 0.0000000001 for Japanese. This compares with a probability value of 0.0000634 for whites, and 0.0164 for Negroes. Dermatoglyphics is emerging as a clinical instrument and genetic tool of significance.