Dermatoglyphics in patients with hypothyreosis.

About 15% of all females and 3% of all males suffers from hypothyreosis. The thyroid disease is the most frequent cause of hypothyreosis, and among people in Croatia who are suffering from that disease 90% have been affected by its autoimmune form. The thyroid diseases are supposed to be caused by the influence of various genetic and external factors and some forms of genetic influences have not yet been studied. Analysis of digito-palmar dermatoglyphics has been used in the research of the role of genetic predisposition in many various diseases. We have analyzed correlation of qualitative and quantitative traits between the group of 50 females suffering from hypothyreosis and a control group of 100 phenotypically healthy females. Quantitative statistical analysis using t-test has indicated only few significantly different variables, while the discriminant analysis has shown 76.9% correctly classified samples. The factor analysis has shown a high percentage of total variance within patients suffering from hypothyreosis, as well as the different structure of individual factors. Qualitative analysis has shown the heterogeneity between the two examined groups. The results of the research have proved that the qualitative characteristics are more unstable than the quantitative ones and they have also shown the instability of genes taking part in hypothyreosis development implying genetic predisposition of the disease.