BBC News Online: UK: England

Palm patterns and diabetes 'linked'

Type 1 Diabetes affects more than 300,000 Britons

Researchers at Manchester University's Institute of Science and Technology (Umist) studied computer analyses of the hands of 50 young children.

They concentrated on the line on the palm that sweeps down around the thumb to the wrist.

Prints were taken of the children's palms at the age of six years and those children were again examined upon reaching 18.

Early indications of the possible onset of diabetes give parents and clinicians adequate opportunity to come to terms with the condition.

Bernard Richards, Professor of Medical Informatics at Umist, led the team of researchers.

He said: "The relevance of this work to society is that such studies can be carried out in the poorer countries and in remote communities, such as in desert lands and in the bush.

"This work does not require hospital or medical facilities: just an ink pad and a magnifying glass."

The discovery is among a number of studies that have increasingly shown how dermatoglyphics can predict a range of conditions and diseases.

Scientists have found clues to the development of heart disease, autism, anxiety, schizophrenia and even cot death.

Dermatoglyphics develop at specific times in the foetus at the same time that critical growth in the brain is taking place.