Congenital absence of dermatoglyphs

Congenital absence or unusual patterns of human dermatoglyphs (fingerprints) occur in several syndromes that are rare and poorly understood. The abnormalities of dermatoglyphs fall into four categories: complete absence, ridge hypoplasia, ridge dissociation, and ridges-off-the-end. Complete congenital absence of ridges is an exceedingly rare syndrome that consists of neonatal blisters and milia, adult traumatic blistering and fissuring, absence of sweating, contracture of digits, and absence of dermatoglyphs on the hands and feet. The syndrome is inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern, and only two kindreds have been described in the literature. We describe a newly identified patient and kindred with findings similar to the previously reported cases and review the clinical and histopathologic findings of this syndrome.