Dermatoglyphic and Skeletal Hand Abnormalities in Turner's Syndrome — A Tentative Scoring Method

Abstract

Summary: A scoring method for the diagnosis of Turner's syndrome (T.S.), based on five dermatoglyphic and four skeletal characteristics, showing significant frequency variations between patients and normal females, is presented. The dermatoglyphic characteristics include: total finger ridge count, ab ridge count, maximal atd angle, T line terminating in the second interdigital interval, and presence of hypothenar patterns. The skeletal characteristics include: carpal sign, metacarpal sign, phalangeal sign, and abnormally shaped distal phalanges. Arbitrary score numbers have been assigned to each characteristic, depending on the magnitude of the difference between patients and controls; the partial scores were added up to form the final T.S. score. The diagnostic value of T.S. score has been proved, since it is well separating the patients from normal females. The probability that an individual with a given T.S. score has the Turner's syndrome has been estimated.