Fingerprint changes and verification failure among patients with hand dermatitis.

OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence of fingerprint verification failure and to define and quantify the fingerprint changes associated with fingerprint verification failure. DESIGN Case-control study. SETTING Referral public dermatology center. PATIENTS The study included 100 consecutive patients with clinical hand dermatitis involving the palmar distal phalanx of either thumb and 100 age-, sex-, and ethnicity-matched controls. Patients with an altered thumb print due to other causes and palmar hyperhidrosis were excluded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Fingerprint verification(pass/fail) and hand eczema severity index score. RESULTS Twenty-seven percent of patients failed fingerprint verification compared with 2% of controls. Fingerprint verification failure was associated with a higher hand eczema severity index score (P.001). The main fingerprint abnormalities were fingerprint dystrophy (42.0%) and abnormal white lines (79.5%). The number of abnormal white lines was significantly higher among the patients with hand dermatitis compared with controls(P=.001). Among the patients with hand dermatitis, theodds of failing fingerprint verification with fingerprint dystrophy was 4.01. The presence of broad lines and long lines was associated with a greater odds of fingerprint verification failure (odds ratio [OR], 8.04; 95% CI, 3.56-18.17 and OR, 2.37; 95% CI, 1.31-4.27, respectively),while the presence of thin lines was protective of verification failure (OR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.23-0.89). CONCLUSIONS Fingerprint verification failure is a significant problem among patients with more severe hand dermatitis. It is mainly due to fingerprint dystrophy and abnormal white lines. TRIAL REGISTRATION Malaysian National Medical Research Register Identifier: NMRR-11-30-8226