Dermatoglyphic features in patients with multiple sclerosis

OBJECTIVE: To examine dermatoglyphic features to clarify implicated genetic predisposition in the etiology of multiple sclerosis (MS). METHODS: The study was conducted between January and December 2013 in the Departments of Anatomy, and Neurology, Cumhuriyet University School of Medicine, Sivas, Turkey. The dermatoglyphic data of 61 patients, and a control group consisting of 62 healthy adults obtained with a digital scanner were transferred to a computer environment. The ImageJ program was used, and atd, dat, adt angles, a-b ridge count, sample types of all fingers, and ridge counts were calculated. RESULTS: In both hands of the patients with MS, the a-b ridge count and ridge counts in all fingers increased, and the differences in these values were statistically significant. There was also a statistically significant increase in the dat angle in both hands of the MS patients. On the contrary, there was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of dermal ridge samples, and the most frequent sample in both groups was the ulnar loop. CONCLUSIONS: Aberrations in the distribution of dermatoglyphic samples support the genetic predisposition in MS etiology. Multiple sclerosis susceptible individuals may be determined by analyzing dermatoglyphic samples.