[Dermatologlyphic investigations in a kindred manifesting familial atrial septal defect (ostium secundum). A contribution to the problem of genetic counselling in multifactorial inheritance (author's transl)].

In order to improve the possibilities of genetic counselling in multifactorial inheritance, dermatoglyphic investigations were performed in a family with atrial septal defect (ostium secundum) - ASD II - affecting two out of six children of a married couple and a maternal aunt. The frequency of finger-print patterns differed widely between the husband and his father on the one hand and the wife and her relatives on the other hand. Assuming some partial effect of the ASD II genes on the total gene influence on dermatoglyphics, it seemed possible that the finger-prints of the two affected siblings and of those brothers who were fairly near the threshold of ASD manifestation might resemble more closely the finger-prints of their mother and their mother's relatives than the finger-prints of their father and their paternal grandfather. This assumption was, however, disproven.