Down's syndrome in Nigeria: dermatoglyphic analysis of 50 cases.

Dermatoglyphic analysis was carried out on 50 cases of Down's Syndrome and 100 normals. It involved the digital patterns, axial triradius and palmer crease on the hands. 94.6% of the digital patterns in Down's Syndrome were the Ulnar loop type against 62.5% in the normals. No arch was reported in Down's Syndrome. There were more whorl patterns in the normals (31.1%) than in the Down's Syndrome group (4%). The mode of the distribution of the digital indices in the Down's Syndrome was at +3.58. More than 84% of the 50 cases of Down's Syndrome have digital index of +3.58 compared to only 12% in the normals.