Prevalence of Type I Lip Print among Medical Students in a Medical College of Nepal

Abstract

Introduction: Lip prints, due to their unique patterns are typical to an individual, hence, used for personal identification. They vary in predominance, gender and race among different populations. The objective is to study their distribution among medical students and identify the predominant type.

Methods: The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on the medical students of Nepalese Army Institute of Health Sciences, from April 2019 to May 2019 after the ethical approval. Convenience sampling was used. The prints were classified according to Suzuki and Tsuchihashi. The collected data was entered in SPSS to determine the frequency and percentage. Sub group analysis was done on basis of gender and types of lip print.

Results: Out of 205 participants, prevalence of type I lip print among medical students is 70 (34.1%).  Type I lip print was found to be most common followed by Type II in 57 (27.8%) and Type V in 6 (2.9%). One hundred forty one (68.8%) were male and 64 (31.2%) were female. The predominating pattern in RUQ; LUQ; LLQ; RLQ among male and female is Type I 46 (32.6%) and Type I 39 (27.7%); Type II 39 (27.7%) and Type II 44 (31.2%); Type I 19 (29.7%) and Type II 19 (29.7%); Type I 31 (48.4%)and Type I 27 (42.2%) respectively.

Conclusions: Type I was the most common while Type V was the least common lip print. However, there was variation in its frequency and distribution according to the quadrant and sex.