Fingerprint Pattern Analysis for the Early Detection of Oral Potentially Malignant Disorders: A Cross-Sectional Study

Most oral cancers develop either de novo or from precancerous lesions such as leukoplakia, oral lichen planus (OLP), oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF), etc. This study aimed to investigate whether specific fingerprint patterns are associated with an increased risk of developing oral precancerous conditions.

The study comprised 100 patients, of whom 50 healthy individuals of either sex were included as controls in group A, and 50 clinically and histopathologically proven oral precancer patients of either sex were included in group B. The fingerprints of 10 fingers from each individual were recorded via the Fingkey Hamster HFDU06 (Nitgen, Seoul, KOR) fingerprint scanner and qualitatively analyzed by the Nitgen Fingerprint Detector Software. The patterns were divided into five groups, namely arch, ulnar loop, radial loop, whorl, and compound. Comparison of the mean values among the study groups was carried out using the unpaired Student's t-test and one-way ANOVA.

The comparison of the fingerprint patterns in each group was found to be statistically highly significant (p=0.000). The comparison of each fingerprint pattern with different grades of dysplasia of precancerous patients was not statistically significant (p˃0.05).

In the qualitative analysis of fingerprints, the whorl type of fingerprint pattern was the most prevalent in the control group, and the ulnar loop type was most prevalent in the oral precancer group. Thus, the ulnar loop pattern may be associated with higher risks of oral precancer irrespective of age or type of addiction.