Topographic approach for analysis of palm crease variants.

Abstract

Summary. As the variability and possible clinical significance of palm crease abnormalities receive greater attention, an accurate and objective method for evaluating the palm crease variants is required. A new method is described employing a topographic approach. A network of co-ordinates drawn on the palm prints enables an accurate and reproducible description to be made of unlimited numbers ofvariants ofpalm crease configurations. This method makes possible quantitative studies rather than merely qualitative descriptions of the palm crease patterns.To determine its usefulness, this method was employed in a comparative study of 100 individuals with Down's syndrome and 100 controls. Significantly higher total degree of transversality (T-DoT), as defined in this paper, was found in the Down's syndrome group. T-DoT may be a useful parameter in the evaluation of crease patterns of patients with congenital and genetic disorders.The clinical significance of palm crease abnormalities is being increasingly recognized. Unusual palm creases have been reported in a wide variety of clinical disorders caused by various genetic and/or environmental factors where the insult occurs early in pregnancy (Rosner, Steinberg, and Sprigge, 1967;Achs, Harper, and Siegel, 1966).Since considerable variability in palm crease configurations exists in the normal population (Alter, 1970), the availability of an accurate and objective method for description of palm crease variants would be helpful for evaluation of normal and abnormal configurations. Several of the previously described schemes and formuli for palm crease studies were summarized by Alter (1970). Unfortunately, these methods are inadequate to describe the spectrum of variations in palm crease configuration, which exists in the population.The topographic approach presented in this communication provides a method which allows the accurate and reproducible description of unlimited numbers of variants. With this method, quantitative as well as qualitative studies of palm crease configurations can be conducted.This method was tried out on palm prints of 100 patients with Down's syndrome, 100 controls, and 17 normal individuals with typical simian creases, selected from a population of 830 people, which was scored for the presence of this feature. MethodA grid of co-ordinates is drawn on the palm print. The starting points are A, B, C, as shown in Fig. 1, where A and B represent the postaxial terminations of the proximal creases of the second and fifth fingers, respectively, and location of point C is the vertex of an isosceles triangle. The A-B line is divided into 5 equal portions, each representing 20 arbitrary units used as the horizontal co-ordinates, starting as 0 on the radial side to 100 on the ulnar side of the palm (points A and B, respectively). Squares are drawn based on these segments, and extend proximally along the palm bordered by point C. The longitudinal co-ordinates are also numbered consecutively, starting from 0 at line AB, thus indicating the palm's length/wid...

Improved analysis of palm creases

“…While the previous method only used X and Y coordinates to calculate the T-DoT of palm creases (Dar & Schmidt, 1976), the new method uses those not only to calculate the T-DoT, but also to reveal the frequent starting and termination points of palm creases (Fig. 7).…”

“…The total degree of transversality (T-DoT) of palm creases was calculated based on the methods of Dar and Schmidt (1976) (Fig. 6).…”

The Enigma of Simian Crease: Case series with literature review

“…6 SC are also useful for diagnosing intrauterine toxin exposure, 3,17 fetal alcoholic syndrome, mental retardation, neoplasia, and other diseases. 14,19 A unilateral SC was also reported in the case of chromosome 9 mutation causing nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome and Robinow syndrome. It is also sometimes found on the hand of the affected side of patients with Poland syndrome and craniosynostosis.…”

“…4,5,12,19 However in our children with DS, an SC was not present and so we have to look for other features of trisomy 21. Hence, SC should not be used as an independent test to diagnose DS.…”

Dermatoglyphic Characteristics of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

“…1) (Alter 1970, Dar et al 1977, Chaube 1977. The total degree of palm crease transversality was calculated on the basis of coordinates on both start points and end points of the radial longitudinal crease, proximal transverse crease, and distal transverse crease (Dar & Schmidt 1976…”