Relation of Primary Fingerprint Patterns With Gender and Blood Group: A Dermatoglyphic Study From a Tertiary Care Institute in Eastern India

Background Identification of an individual plays a vital part in any medicolegal investigation. The fingerprint is one of the oldest and most reliable biometric methods and is taken as legitimate proof of identification of an individual. Positive relationships between the fingerprint pattern and blood group and the fingerprint pattern and gender were demonstrated in some of the previous studies but weren't consistent across them. Objectives (a) To study the distribution of fingerprint patterns among the study participants by gender and ABO and Rh blood groups and (b) to find an association between the fingerprint pattern and gender and blood group. Methods A cross-sectional observational study was carried out in the year 2021 on 800 healthcare students and workers of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, Bihar, Eastern India having different ABO and Rh blood groups. Healthy individuals i.e., those who were not suffering from any illness which can affect the fingerprints, aged 18 years or above were included and individuals having hand or finger deformities or missing fingers, having an allergy to the ink pad, and having blood group diseases were excluded. Rolled imprints of all the 10 digits of the participants were taken on a white A4 size Performa and were classified into loops, whorl, arches, and composite. The distribution of the fingerprint patterns was then compared by gender, ABO and Rh blood group. Chi-square/Fischer exact tests were applied to compare two groups and find the association. P-value<0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Results The majority (66.0%) of the participants in the study were males with a male: female ratio of 1.9:1. Most common blood group was blood group B (37.7%) followed by O (29.8%), A (23.0%), and AB (9.5%). Rh-positive cases constituted around 96% of all the studied cases with the rest being Rh-ve. The general distribution of the fingerprint pattern showed a high frequency of loops registering 55.9%; followed by whorls (34.9%), arches (6.0%), and composite (3.1%). The distribution of fingerprint patterns among the male and female gender was found to be similar with no significant difference (p=0.11). However, the distribution of the finger patterns across the ABO blood groups showed a statistically significant difference (p=0.0003) whereas it was non-significant across the Rh blood groups (p=0.08). Conclusion This study concludes that the distribution of the primary fingerprint patterns relates to the “ABO” blood group but not to gender and Rh blood group. An individual's fingerprints may be used to predict his/her blood group and vice versa.