True palmar pattern in vitiligo--a case control study.

Characteristic epidermal ridges formed on the finger pad and on the palm by the end of the second trimester and remain unchanged thereafter and those are responsible for the highly specific finger prints of each individual. These ridges are nither influenced by later prenatal period nor they subject to any influence in the postnatal environmental factors because the formation of ridge patterns gets already completed by about the eighteenth week of gestation. Dermatoglyphics is a scientific study of such epidermal ridges. Dermatoglyphic study of both palms of clinically diagnosed vitiligo patients and control subjects were carried out and statisticaltly analysed in respect to sex and side of hands. The study revealed variable number of deviations of this patterns in Vitiligo patients when compared with that of control. Increased number of true palmar patterns in right hypothenar, right thenar and both inter digital areas 2 (ID-2) and decreased TPP in Rt. ID3, Rt. ID4 in vitiligo male patients and increased TPP in Rt. Hypothenar and Rt. ID1 and decreased TPP in Rt. ID2 and Lt. ID 3 in vitiligo female patients while compared with that of the control group. Some of the variations observed were stastically significant.