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ABSTRACT
The study was conducted at the faculty of Basic of Medical Sciences， Remo
Campus to evaluate the dermatoglyphic appraisal of male students.
Fingerprints of 50 male students within the age range of 19 to 24 years were used for this study. All healthy individuals with no history of any genetic disorders were included in the study. Ink method as described by Cummins and Midlo， which requires ink slab， inverted ‘T’ shaped pad， Kores duplicating ink， white paper， magnifying lens and soap was used.
The fingers were rolled laterally on the ink slab and then placed on a white paper with one lateral edge and rolled over in opposite direction. Thus the finger tip patterns were recorded and studied with the help of magnifying lens. Finger print patterns were identified as: Loops， Whorls and Arches based on appearance of ridge lines. The present study evaluates the distribution of dermatoglyphic fingertip patterns in both hands among males and the findings of the study are compared with the available data. The result of this study indicates that Ulnar loop and Whorl pattern strength is much more than other patterns and has the potency of much more power and visibility compared to Arch， Radial loop， Twin loop and Acciendental. Likewise， the pattern strength of Arch and Accidental are much more reduced compared to other pattern types， which makes them have potency of lesser power and visibility compared to other pattern types.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 DERMATOGLYPHICS
This is the scientific study of fingerprints and can be traced back to 1892. The study was later termed Dermatoglyphics even though the process of fingerprint identification had already been in use for several hundred years (Buchi， 1954). All primates have ridged skin. It can also be found on the paws of certain mammals， and on the tails of some monkey species. In humans and animals， dermatoglyphs are present on fingers， palms， toes and soles. This helps shed light on a critical period of embryogenesis， between four weeks and five months， when the architecture of the major organ systems is developing.
The word dermatoglyphics comes from two Greek words (derma， skin and glyphe， carve) and refers to the friction ridge formations which appear on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. Characteristically， hair does not grow from this area. The ridging formations serve well to enhance contact， an area of multiple nerve endings (Dermal Papillae) and aids in the prevention of slippage. People of African ancestry display reduced skin pigmentation in the designated locations. All studies of the dermal ridge arrangements are classified under the term dermatoglyphics (Book， 1957).
In mammals， there are various morphological features which are unique in character， for example stripes pattern in zebra or stripes pattern in tiger， it’s never the same and its unique to each of them (Banerjee， 1970) .patterns present on the palms， soles and lips are totally unique (Bansal， 1967). The palmar and plantar surface of the order primate are characterised by the presence of ridges. There are the intricate patterns of the epidermis and it is formed during the early foetal life， these are permanent and not affected by the age and postnatal circumstances， except when there is various injury to the stratum germinatium (Collins，1913). On the onset of 12 week of gestation， undulation appears on the inner surface of the epidermis which form ridges and furrow. There remains unchanged but its size keeps on growing as infant grows (Cummins and Midle， 1943).
1.2 Brief Historical Background: ClassicalDermatoglyphics:
The science of dermatoglyphics has its own importance. It can be applied for the medical studies， for identification of the person， identification in the crime， physical anthropology. The research work of the Faulds was first published in 1880 in the form of scientific identification of fingerprint whereas Herschel established fingerprint system and proved that the fingerprint do not change with age (Biswas， 1936). While Henry improved system of classification was accepted and is been applied even today. It was Galton’s idea to bring the fingerprint for personal identification and he realised its importance in disease identification. Galton’s original classification of whorls， loops， arches， still hold good and true in the field of dermatoglyphics and he proved the hereditary basis of fingerprints (Biswas， 1936; Coope， 1973). He had tried to develop the establishment of the fingerprint patterns with standard methods and obtaining the results from the collected data.
There is a deep relation between the disease and the patterns of dermatoglyphics (Bansal et al.，1994). Study of the patterns on the palm was studied by (Biswas， 1936) for anthropological studies whereas the finger patterns was also studied by various scholar like the mean ridge count in the right hand of the cases (Verma (1952; Tiwari and Chattopadhyay， 2000).
1.3 Classification of dermatoglyphics
Dermatoglyphic traits are formed under genetic control early in development but may be affected by environmental factors (Buchi， 1954). These patterns may represent the genetic makeup of an individual and can therefore be marker used as to identify the predisposition for left handedness (Ashbaugh and David， 1999). Patterns of dermatoglyphics are usually studied in a population selected randomly (Chattopadhyay and Kushwaha，1978). Fingerprints are extremely complex. Fingerprints are a reproduction of friction skin ridges found on the palm of the fingers and thumbs (Bansal，1966). They are also found on palms， soles of feet and lips. Two types of fingerprint characteristics are used in identification of individuals: Global features and Local features. Global features are those characteristic which are seen through naked eye and Local features are tiny characteristic of fingerprint ridges(Biswas， 1936). Their two dimensional arrangement is distinctive and is used for identification. It is possible for two or more individuals to have similar global features but still have different and distinctive fingerprints because of the local features， that is， the two dimensional arrangement is different. Global features include (Das and Das， 1996); Chattopadhyay， 1966): Pattern area， core area， type lines， delta ridge count， ridge pattern.
Pattern Area: Fingerprints are read and classified based on the information in the pattern area. Certain minutiae points that are used for final recognition might be outside the pattern area.
Core Point: The core point， located at the approximate centre of the finger impression， is used as a starting reference point for reading and classifying the print.
Type Lines: They are the two innermost ridges that start parallel， diverge and surround or tend to surround the pattern area (Malhotra， 1987)
Delta: In all types of ridge patterns a place occurs where two lines run side by side and then diverge significantly recurving line which passes in front of a structure which is triangular in shape called delta or triradius.
Ridge Count: It is the number of ridges between the delta and the core. To establish the ridge count， an imaginary line is drawn from the delta to the core; each ridge that touches this line is counted (Book， 1957).
Ridge Patterns: Fingerprints have general ridge patterns for classification which are divided into three classes: Loops， Whorl and Arch
Figure 1: Loop (Right Loop)
Loops: It is the most common type of fingerprint pattern. One or more ridges entering from one side of the print， recurring and exiting from the same side is a loop. If loop opens towards little finger it is called ulnar loop. If loop opens from thumb it is called radial loop. All loops have one delta.
Whorl: They are of four distinct types:
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Single loop whorl (simple)
Central pocket
Double loop
All whorl patterns have type lines and a minimum of two deltas. Simple and central pocket whorls have at least two deltas. Simple and central pocket whorls have at least spiral， oval or any variant of a circle (Nakul， 2004).
Figure 3: Arch
Arches: Arches have two patterns: simple and tented. They do not have type line， deltas or cores. Of the two types of arches， the simple arch is the simplest of all fingerprint patterns. It is formed by ridges entering from one side of the print and exiting on the opposite side (Dror et al.， 2006). These ridges tend to rise at the centre of the pattern， forming a wave like structure. The tented arch is similar， but instead of rising smoothly at the centre， there is either a sharp up thrust or spike， or the ridges meet at an angle that is less than 90 degree. The fingerprints could be thus used for screening the left handed people and our study is an effort in this regard (Conklin et al.， 2002)
1.4 GENETICS AND DERMATOGLYPHICS
Elderton in 1920 started the scientific study of dermatoglyphics and it was Bonnevie in the year 1924 who found out that the dominant gene were responsible for the inheritance of some of the patterns while Mueller in1930 and Karl in 1934 assigned it to incompletely dominant gene and recessive gene are responsible for the twisting and the whorl respectively (Henry and Edward， 1900). Counting the total number of ridge count provided the insight of genetic significance. Twins has almost the similar genotype also be proved by the total ridge counts. There the quantitative value of the total ridge counts were determine almost entirely by co-dominant gene (Penrose， 1968) was able to link between the total ridge count and syndromic disorder like Klinefelter syndrome， Turner each other. syndrome and Down syndrome
1.5 MINUTIAE
On carefully looking at the palms， the epidermal ridges are parallel lines. These parallel lines reveal many different types of patterns which can be collectively called minutiae. Minutiae are highly polymorphic and their number， type， patterns are unique to the particular person， therefore are reliable marker for personal identification (Qazi， 1977). There is no internationally approved nomenclature in this produce for taking minimum number of ridge characteristics i.e. minutiae to establish the identity. It varies from one race to the other race or else it can be put as it varies from one country/region to the other country region. In India the range of minutiae is from 6-12， while in other countries it is from 6-17. An attempt had been made to relate the minutiae to the quantitative genetics apart from the quantitative value of total ridge count.
Classification of the Minutiae: Although there is not yet proper nomenclature of minutiae accepted by scientist world over still many classification had been made by various scientist like (Loesch，1973; Penrose， 1968; Cummins and Midle， 1943).
Some of the minutiae are:
Interstitial lines: It rarely contain sweat pore， it is called subsidiary ridges because it lie at a lower level than the ridges. It is also called incipient vestigial rudimentary， secondary or nascent ridges.
Break: A joint or gap about one ridge unit in length between two ridges ends first starts.
Short ridge: A small ridge containing two to about five sebasceous gland pore.
Connecting ridge: A short ridge which is perpendicular to each other. It may have the sweat gland or may not.
Fork: Bifurcation of the ridges or else also called ‘y’shaped ridge.
Island: It is small ridge approximately a dot size having a circular outline， and has only a sweat gland.
End: An abrupt termination of ridges.
Comb: A formation of five or more parallel ridges joined to another ridge almost at right angle to direction.
Enclosure: A continuous ridge which surrounds a furrow， usually made by the two minutiae (fork facing each other).
Short ridge: A small ridge containing two to about finger technique using kajal (James et al.， 1989).
1.5.1 Sexual Dimorphism
After a previous dermatoglyphic study on various racial samples， pointed out that dermatoglyphic characters of females differ from males universally， although sexual distinction may be leveled or even inverted in some populations (Cummins and Midle， 1943). They observed a higher frequency of ulnar loops and arches buta lower frequency of whorls and radial loops in females compared to males. To date， sexual dimorphism of qualitative dermatoglyphic traits has been studied in various populations around the world. In 1892， Sir Francis Galton examined 5，000 digital prints from different populations in which he observed the pattern distribution as loop (67.5%)， whorl (26%) and arch (6.55%) patterns (Chattopadhyay et al 1966)， in their study on Rarhi Brahmins in Bengal， found that loop pattern was the most common pattern followed by whorl and arch in both males and females. However， in another study it was found that whorl pattern was the most common pattern among Dhimals of North Bengal followed by loop and arch (Biswas， 2011; Banik et al.， 2009) study on Rengma Nagas of Nagaland in India， observed that whorl pattern was most common followed by loop and arch in both gender (David and Ashbaugh， 1999) in their study on South Indian people， observed that loop pattern was more frequent than whorl and arch (Sawer and Patrick， 2008). In his study on Danguria Tharu of Uttar Pradesh in India， it was also found that loop pattern was the most common pattern followed by whorl and arch (Ward， 2006). A study on Tibetans in Tibet， found that whorl was the most common pattern followed by loop and0 arch in males， whereas in females， loop pattern was the most common pattern followed by whorl and arch (Hall and Agnus， 1989). In another study on Samoan New Zealanders in New Zealand observed that whorl was the most common pattern followed by loop and arch. Another study done by (Hall and Agnus， 1989) among the Aborigines of the Northern Territory in Australia， also found that whorl was the most common pattern followed by loop and arch. A study on Indigenous black Zimbabweans， which observed that loop pattern was the most common pattern followed by whorl and arch (Igbigbi andMsamati， 2002). Similarly， the study on Muzziena Bedouin in South Sinai by (Karmakar and kobyliansky， 2012) observed that loop was the most common pattern in males followed by whorls and arch， whereas whorl pattern was found more frequently in females followed by loops and arch. (Paul， 2007) in his study on Tunisians of Tunisia observed that loop was the most common pattern followed by whorl and arch in both males and females， which was similar to the study by (Qazi et al.， 1977)， whose study on Black Americans in USA， found that loop was the most common pattern followed by whorl and arch in both sexes.
1.6 AIM OF STUDY
The study is aimed at evaluating the dermatoglyphic appraisal of male student in faculty of basic medical science， Olabisi Onabanjo University， Ikenne campus.
Objectives
To identify the frequency and pattern types of subjects
To identify the incidence pattern types in the subjects
To examine the pattern intensity in the subjects
1.7 JUSTIFICATION OF STUDY
Dermatoglyphic traits are formed under genetic control early in development but may be affected by environmental factors. These patterns may represent the genetic makeup of an individual and can therefore be marker used as to identify the predisposition for left handedness. Patterns of dermatoglyphics are usually studied in a population selected randomly. Fingerprints have general ridge patterns for classification which are divided into three classes: Loops， Whorl and Arch. The study was carried out to identify the pattern types and to examine the pattern intensity of the subjects.
