Quantitative and Qualitative Study of Dermatoglyphic Patterns in Albinism

The changes of dermal ridges in albinism patients were studied. The results obtained from subjects with albinism were compared with healthy subjects. A number of 30 patients were finally selected as our sample sizes. To gain a better understanding the results, a case-control study with the similar number of cases and control was designed. The related statistical test, t-test and chi-square, were considered to evaluate whether the discrepancy is statistically significant. The results indicated that a-b ridge counts of the right side were decreased significantly (p = 0.04). Moreover, the discrepancy between cases and controls for the case total a-b ridge count (TABRC) was statistically significant (p = 0.06) at 10% significant level. Furthermore, based on the visual analysis, there was no strong evidence for the differences between cases and controls from the fingerprint shapes point of view. The general result is that dermatoglyphic can be considered as a valuable aid and promising method for genetic analysis and albinism studies.