Topographic approach for analysis of palm crease variants.

As the variability and possible clinical significance of palm increase abnormalities receive greater attention, an accurate and objective method for evaluating the palm increase variants is required. A new method is described employing a topographic approach. A network of co-ordinates drawn on the palm prints enables an accurate and reproducible description to be made of unlimited numbers of variants of palm crease configurations. This method makes possible quantitative studies rather than merely qualitative descriptions of the palm crease patterns. To determine its usefulness, this method was employed in a comparative study of 100 individuals with Down's syndrome and 100 controls. Significantly higher total degree of transversality (T-DoT), as defined in this paper, was found in the Down's syndrome group. T-DoT may be a useful parameter in the evaluation of crease patterns of patients with congenital and genetic disorders.