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Background: Several studies have reported an increase of dermatoglyphic anomalies in schizophrenic patients compared to controls. However, the recognition of specific dermatoglyphic variables related to this disorder and their genetic and/or environmental component are still controversial., Method: We conducted a dermatoglyphic analysis in a new sample of 617 individuals: 205 patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, 224 healthy first degree relatives and 188 healthy controls. The dermatoglyphic variables studied were: the total a-b ridge count (TABRC) and its fluctuating asymmetry (FAABRC), and the presence of ridge dissociations (RD) and abnormal palmar flexion creases (APFC)., Results: Patients, relatives and controls did not differ in TABRC. However, within the patients group those with a low birth weight or absence of psychiatric family history showed lower TABRC than the others. The frequency of ectodermic derivates abnormalities (RD and/or APFC) appeared to be higher in patients and relatives than in controls, while first degree relatives did not differ from patients. Males showed an increased rate of ectodermic derivates abnormalities compared to females in all groups and male patients also presented higher FAABRC than female patients., Conclusions: Our results suggest a different relative weight of genetic and environmental factors on each dermatoglyphic variable analyzed: i) TABRC may be a sensitive marker to environmental factors in schizophrenia, ii) ectodermal derivates abnormalities appear to be influenced by genetic risk factors, which could be involved both in the disrupted development of ectodermic derivates like dermatoglyphics and central nervous system and in the vulnerability for schizophrenia.

The neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia suggests that adverse genetic loading in conjunction with environmental factors early in fetal life causes a disruption of neural development, decades before the symptomatic manifestation of the disease. Neurocognitive deficits have been observed early on the course of schizophrenia, and their association with an early developmental brain lesion has been postulated. Dermatoglyphics have been analyzed in schizophrenia as markers of prenatal brain injury because of their early fetal ontogenesis and susceptibility to the same environmental factors that can also affect cerebral development. The aim of our study was to conduct a comparative examination of neurocognitive functions and dermatoglyphic variables in 89 sibling pairs discordant for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Therefore, we investigated the association between these two markers to explore the prenatal origin of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. The affected siblings were significantly impaired on all the cognitive variables assessed (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Trail Making Test and Continuous Performance Test) and had a greater number of dermatoglyphic anomalies. These results suggest the influence of intrauterine environmental factors in the siblings affected with schizophrenia. However, we did not detect a significant association between these two vulnerability markers in the schizophrenic patients, suggesting the role of genetic or late environmental factors in the origin of the neurocognitive deficits found in these patients.

Background: Patients with schizophrenia show deviances in their dermatoglyphics, in particular reductions in palmar a-b ridge counts (ABRCs), which are evidence of an early developmental deviance. However, the severity or the origin of these ABRC changes has not been established., Method: (i) We examined the published literature on the ABRC in patients with schizophrenia against controls with a random effects meta-analysis. (ii) We used linear regression to study the ABRC in our sample of families including 125 patients with schizophrenia, 107 of their unaffected relatives and 98 controls. (iii) The effect of obstetric complications on the patient's ABRC was examined using the Lewis Murray scale., Results: The pooled standardised effect size of ABRC differences between patients and controls obtained by our meta-analysis was 0.39 (95% CI: 0.05-0.73; p=0.03). In our sample, there were no significant differences in ABRCs between those with schizophrenia, their relatives and controls. Only those patients with obstetric complications had significantly reduced ABRC compared to controls (p=0.01)., Conclusions: We confirmed the presence of significant yet mild ABRC reductions in schizophrenia. These represent a subtle deviance from the norm and could be present in certain subsets of patients, possibly those who suffered early developmental insults.

A genetic subtype of schizophrenia has been described in 22q11 Deletion syndrome. Previous studies have described an excess of dermatoglyphic alterations in schizophrenia, such as low a-b ridge counts (ABRCs), a high frequency of ridge dissociations, and increased dermatoglyphic fluctuating asymmetry. Little is known however, about the dermatoglyphic profile of 22qDS subjects showing psychotic symptoms and its similarity to the previously reported anomalies in schizophrenia. We studied the palmar dermatoglyphics of 22 subjects with 22qDS of predominantly Caucasian origin, 15 of whom had psychotic illness, and in 84 healthy controls of similar ethnicity. We observed higher values for total ATD angle in cases than in controls (P = 0.04). In addition, there was an excess of radial figures in the hypothenar area in cases, especially in the left hand. Interestingly, greater fluctuating asymmetry, determined by the absolute difference between right and left ABRC, was observed in 22qDS subjects compared to controls (P = 0.05). However, no differences were found for ABRCs and frequency of dissociations. Despite the small sample size, the palmprints analyzed suggest the existence of an altered dermatoglyphic profile in 22qDS, involving: (i) ATD angle amplitude, (ii) presence of radial loops in the hypothenar area, and (iii) an increment of fluctuating asymmetry. The first two features are similar to those found in other genetic syndromes associated with low IQ, while high levels of fluctuating asymmetry have often been reported in schizophrenia., (Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

The origins of cerebral abnormalities in psychotic patients remain unknown. Dermatoglyphics are suitable markers of prenatal injury due to their fetal ontogenesis and their susceptibility to some of the factors that also affect cerebral development. In a previous study, positive associations between brain volumetric measures and a dermatoglyphic marker, the ab-ridge count, were reported. The present study is an attempt to replicate that finding in an independent sample. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and dermatoglyphic measures were available for 29 schizophrenia patients (Research Diagnostic Criteria [RDC] criteria) and 26 unrelated healthy controls. The images were processed using an automated procedure, yielding volumes of total grey matter, white matter, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and total brain volume. The ab-ridge count was not positively associated with brain volumes in either patients or controls. The present findings do not support the hypothesis that the changes in brain volume seen in patients with schizophrenia are of prenatal origin.

Background: Several studies have reported alterations in finger and a-b ridge counts, and their derived measures of asymmetry, in schizophrenia compared to controls. Because ridges are fully formed by the end of the second trimester, they may provide clues to disturbed early development. The aim of this study was to assess these measures in a sample of patients with psychosis and normal controls., Methods: Individuals with psychosis (n = 240), and normal controls (n = 228) were drawn from a catchment-area case-control study. Differences in finger and a-b ridge count and Fluctuating Asymmetry were assessed in three group comparisons (non-affective psychosis versus controls; affective psychosis versus controls; non-affective psychosis versus affective psychosis). The analyses were performed separately for males and females., Results: There were no significant group differences for finger nor a-b ridge counts. While there were no group difference for Directional Asymmetry, for Fluctuating Asymmetry measures men with non-affective psychosis had significantly higher fluctuating asymmetry of the index finger ridge count (a) when compared to controls (FA-correlation score, p = 0.02), and (b) when compared to affective psychosis (adjusted FA-difference score, p = 0.04)., Conclusion: Overall, measures of finger and a-b ridge counts, and their derived measures of directional and fluctuating asymmetry were not prominent features of psychosis in this sample. While directional asymmetry in cerebral morphology is reduced in schizophrenia, this is not reflected in dermatoglyphic variables.

The presence of abnormal palmar flexion creases (APFC) and dermatoglyphic ridge dissociation (RD) may constitute enduring evidence of a prenatal insult that occurred before the third trimester of intrauterine life. We examined these dermatoglyphic abnormalities in a twin study of psychotic disorders. RD and APFC were analyzed in a monozygotic (MZ) twin sample from the Maudsley Hospital in London (11 normal control pairs, 16 pairs concordant for psychosis, 9 pairs discordant for psychosis, 1 concordant triplet, and 1 triplet with one affected member). The risk of either RD or APFC was 44 percent in affected twins and 20 percent in nonaffected twins (odds ratio = 3.25, 95% confidence interval: 1.03-10.31; one-sided p = 0.023). In the group of MZ twins discordant for psychosis, discordance for RD or APFC always paralleled discordance for psychosis (one-sided p = 0.078), suggesting the operation of nongenetic factors. The results confirm previous work suggesting the possibility that nongenetic factors early in pregnancy contribute to the liability to develop psychosis in later life.

A number of studies have shown the importance of dermatoglyphics as markers of prenatal disturbance in developmental disorders of unknown origin. Genetic and non-genetic factors are involved in the aetiology of intellectual disability (ID), although the cause remains unknown in up to 50% of cases. The aim of the present study was to analyse dermatoglyphic traits and abnormal palmar flexion creases as markers of environmental prenatal stress in children with idiopathic ID (IID) using a case-control study design. Three dermatoglyphic variables, which have been reported as altered in other congenital disorders, were considered were studied in a sample of 62 children with IID (IQ < 70) and 75 healthy controls (IQ > 70): (1) fingerprint patterns; (2) total a-b ridge count (TABRC); and (3) abnormal palmar flexion creases (APFCs). More arches, the simplest fingerprint pattern, and more radial loops, an unusual pattern, were found in IID cases in comparison to controls (chi23 = 9.26; P = 0.02), with especially marked differences in boys (chi23 = 6.5; P = 0.0008). A significant increase of APFCs was also found in the affected children (chi24 = 28.52; P < 0.00; odds ration = 3.86, 95% confidence interval = 1.77-8.47). For TABRC, the differences between IID cases and controls failed to reach the conventional level of significance. These findings suggest that environmental factors acting early in development, or mechanisms involving an interaction of genotype and environment could be involved in the aetiology of some cases of ID.

Dermatoglyphic alterations may be the result of early prenatal disturbances thought to be implicated in the aetiology of psychiatric illness. In order to test this hypothesis in the particular case of bipolar disorder, we assessed two congenital dermatoglyphic malformations (ridge dissociation (RD) and abnormal features (AF)) and two metric dermatoglyphic traits (total finger ridge count (TFRC) and total a-b ridge count (TABRC)) in a sample of 118 patients with chronic DSM-III-R bipolar illness, and 216 healthy controls. Bipolar cases showed a significant excess of RD and AF (OR = 2.80; 95% CI: 2.31-3.38) when compared with controls. In the cases, the presence of anomalies was associated with earlier age of onset. No differences were found for TFRC and TABRC. No associations were found with sex or familial morbid risk of psychiatric disorders. Our findings add further weight to the suggestion that early developmental disruption is a risk factor for later bipolar disorder.

Pattern types and quantitative finger dermatoglyphics have been analyzed in a Spanish population samples (141 males, 200 females) from the Mediterranean coast. For both dermatoglyphic traits sexual and bilateral differences were tested by means of Chi-square and Student's t-test. Concerning the pattern types the male samples show an intermediate position in the Spanish variation range, whereas the female sample differs from all the populations compared. In regard of the quantitative values the Delta de l'Ebre population is within the general range of ridge counts described for other Iberian samples. This is valid for both sexes.

Finger and a-b palmar ridge-count dermatoglyphic features were studied in schizophrenics with and without a positive family history of schizophrenia. Associations are reported for low quantitative dermatoglyphic values in schizophrenia. The differences found between the two subgroups of patients support the genetic heterogeneity of schizophrenia and stress the existence of congenital factors when there is no family history, that is, a genetic background.

Introduction This study explored schizotypy as a familial liability marker for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSD) by examining: 1) the aggregation of schizotypy in families with a SSD patient, 2) whether familial resemblance of schizotypy is associated with ridge dissociations (RD), another SSD liability marker, 3) whether schizotypy aggregation patterns influence patients' psychopathology. Methods The sample comprised 30 SSD patients and 82 healthy first-degree relatives. Schizotypy was assessed using the Structured Interview for Schizotypy-Revised (SIS-R). Patients' psychopathology was evaluated using the Comprehensive Assessment of Symptoms and History (CASH). RD were identified as anomalies of the dermal ridge junction. Familiality of SIS-R was investigated using a linear mixed model (LMM) and its strength was assessed using an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Another LMM using the absolute differences in SIS-R scores between all possible pairs of relatives as the dependent variable was fitted to obtain an intra-family resemblance score, a family-specific indicator of resemblance of SIS-R scores within each family. Results 1) Schizotypy was familial (ICC = 0.30); families with high resemblance displayed low schizotypy, whereas families with low resemblance included at least one healthy relative with high schizotypy (p < 0.001). 2) Relatives with RD had higher SIS-R scores (p = 0.018) and belonged to families with discordant schizotypy scores among members (p < 0.001). 3) Patients from high schizotypy families showed more severe disorganized symptoms at the psychotic episode (p = 0.035) and 1 year later (p = 0.011). Conclusions Schizotypy is a marker of vulnerability for SSD that runs within a subgroup of families. The schizotypy familial aggregation pattern correlates with RD in relatives and with patients' psychopathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]