Correlation of lip prints with gender and blood groups

Individual identification is a challenging task in forensic investigation. Lip prints are unique to a person and may be used as supportive evidence. Present study was aimed at proving that lip prints may be specific to gender & blood groups.

An observational study was done on 100 medical students of both genders after taking approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee. Inter-commissural distance (ICD) of lips and lip prints types were recorded using standard techniques in relaxed state. Participants were stratified according to lip print types, blood groups and compared across the gender.

Both the blood groups O^+ve and B^+ve were present in equal proportion in males (33.3%), where as 28.6% of females were O^+ve and 27.1% were B+ve. The most common lip pattern in females was Type I, while the most common type in males was Type I and IV. No significant association of lip prints types was found with gender (Chi =7.423; p=0.191) and blood groups. (Chi =30.60;p=0.435). ICD was significantly higher in males as compared to females (51.6±6.84 vs 45.82±3.86; p<0.001).

The study confirmed the distinctiveness of lip prints in gender and blood groups but disapproved any significant correlation of lip prints with blood group and gender.