Sex differences in radioulnar contrasts of the finger ridge counts across 21 human population samples.

Aim: The aim of the present study was to demonstrate the existence of uniform sexual dimorphism in some radioulnar contrasts between different finger ridge counts within the same hand in a large set of populations, thus confirming the universal nature of this dimorphism in humans.Subjects and methods: We analysed individual finger ridge counts (10 values on each hand) of both hands from archival sources (mainly the Brehme-Jantz database). In total, these included 4412 adults from 21 population samples covering all permanently inhabited continents and encompassing very different and geographically distant human populations. We calculated the contrasts (differences) of all pairs of ridge counts (45 per hand) and used diverse methods to assess the direction and degree of dimorphism of them across all population samples.Results: The highest sexual dimorphism was observed for nine contrasts involving the ridge count of the dermatoglyphic pattern on the radial side of the second finger of the right hand (R2r). Among these contrasts, we then found four that had the same direction of dimorphism in all 21 populations. The most dimorphic was the contrast R1rR2r - the difference between the ridge count of the radial side of the thumb and the radial side of the index finger.Discussion: Thus, these dermatoglyphic traits can be further investigated as potential markers of prenatal sex differentiation from ca. 10th week of intrauterine development. However, it will be useful to address the detailed factors and mechanisms for differences in the degree of dimorphism of these traits in different populations.

[Drug utilization of selected pharmacotherapeutic groups]. / Sledování spotreby léciv u vybraných farmakoterapeutických skupin.

A single orientational survey investigated the consumption of antiepileptic, antihypertensive and vasodilating agents. The analysis aimed to investigate the effect of the factors of sex and age patients as to the requirements for drugs of the selected pharmacotherapeutic groups. Evaluation of the results was performed on the basis of statistical processing by means of the test of the difference of two relative values. A dependence of drug consumption on the above-mentioned identification characteristics was confirmed, high consumption of antihypertensive and vasodilating agents, particularly in higher age categories, was demonstrated. The results have shown that it is necessary for our health service to continue considering the growing trend of drug consumption and not only to record, but also to analyze the consumption and its assortment and to use the conclusions both in practice and theory of pharmacotherapy.