McIntyre Matthew H
Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Reprod Biol Endocrinol. 2006 Feb 26;4:10. doi: 10.1186/1477-7827-4-10.
Since the ratio of the second-to-fourth finger length was first proposed as a marker for prenatal androgen action in 1998, over 100 studies have been published that have either further tested the association between the digit ratio and prenatal androgens, or employed digit ratios as a marker to investigate the association between prenatal androgens and a variety of outcomes, including behavior, fertility, and disease risks. Despite the clear demand for an adult marker of prenatal androgen action and increased use of digit ratios as such a marker, its validity remains controversial. This review (1) evaluates current evidence for the relationship between digit ratios and prenatal androgens (using experimentation with animal models, amniotic testosterone, and congenital adrenal hyperplasia case-control studies), (2) describes opportunities for future validation tests, and (3) compares the potential advantages and disadvantages of digit ratio measures with more established methods for studying the effects of prenatal androgens.
自1998年首次提出将食指与无名指长度之比作为产前雄激素作用的标志物以来，已发表了100多项研究，这些研究要么进一步检验了指长比与产前雄激素之间的关联，要么采用指长比作为标志物来研究产前雄激素与包括行为、生育能力和疾病风险在内的各种结果之间的关联。尽管对产前雄激素作用的成人标志物有明确需求，且指长比作为此类标志物的使用越来越多，但其有效性仍存在争议。本综述：（1）评估指长比与产前雄激素之间关系的现有证据（使用动物模型实验、羊水睾酮和先天性肾上腺皮质增生病例对照研究）；（2）描述未来验证测试的机会；（3）比较指长比测量方法与研究产前雄激素作用的更成熟方法的潜在优缺点。
