Abstract

Dermatoglyphic analysis of 90 Sickle-cell Anaemia cases and 90 normal subjects was carried out in this study.  It involved the digital patterns, ATD angle, A – B ridge count, axial triradius, digital triradius and palmar crease on the hands. 58.44% of the digital patterns in sickle-cell cases were ulnar loop as against 60.14% in the normals. The percentage of Whorl, arch and radial loop in Sickle-Cell group were 31.64%, 8.23% and 2.98% respectively as against 27.47%, 10.43% and 1.98% in the normals.  The mean ATD values were 41^o and 40^o for the normal and sickle-cell groups respectively. The mean A – B ridge counts was 33.1 in sickle-cell group and 33.5 in the normals.  No axial triradius was found in tⁱⁱⁱ (along the distal transverse crease) position in both groups. Most of the triradii were found in position tⁱ (along or close to the thenar crease) in both groups.  Only 3.6% of normals and 2.9% sickle-cell cases were found in tⁱⁱ (along the proximal transverse crease) position. The mode of the frequency distribution of digital triradii of normals was 13 while they were 11, 14 and 15 for sickle-cell group. The means were 11.89 and 12.32 respectively. No Simean crease was found in both groups; however, 2.2% of the 90 sickle-cell cases had Sidney creases. The above-mentioned values were not statistically different when the two groups were subjected to appropriate statistical tests.

Key words: Dermatoglyphics, sickle-cell anaemia, Nigeria.