fingerprint patterns in hamadan, iran

background: the goal of the present work was to determine frequencies of different finger patterns of a population in hamadan (one of the western cities of iran) in 1997. methods: in a cross-sectional study, the .prints of the first phalanx of both hands of 717 randomly selected hamadan students (i88 men, 529 women) have taken, by using standard method (stamp ink). the fingerprints were classified according to galton nomenclature and its subclasses (total of 10 types). results: the most frequent type in this study was ulnar loop (37.66%) and the least frequent type was central pocket (0.12%). frequencies of different types were significantly different neither in right and left hands nor between men and women.