title: Correlation of Palatal Rugoscopy with Gender, Palatal Vault Height and ABO Blood Groups in Three Different Indian Populations.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Palatal rugae (PR) are asymmetrical irregular elevations, recorded during maxillary cast fabrication, that can be used for identification purpose if previous comparative sources are available.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study investigated uniqueness of PR patterns in relation to gender, palatal vault forms, and ABO blood groups in three (North-East [N-E], Northern and Western) populations of India.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted on randomly selected 90 students, 30 from each sub population. Design - The palatal vault was recorded as Types I, II, and III. The maxillary casts were analyzed for each subject. The blood group of each subject was also recorded. Pearson's correlation coefficient tests were performed on cross-tabulations to evaluate significant relationship among different variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The PR number was more among females with an insignificant correlation among gender and mean rugae size on both sides. Types I and II hard palate vaults were seen associated with straight forwardly directed PR pattern, while Type III with curved forwardly directed PR. On the right side, straight rugae shape was most common type. On the left side, straight rugae shape was most common in Northern population while in N-E and Western populations curved rugae was the dominating type. A highly significant correlation was found between ABO blood groups and different PR patterns.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PR possesses unique characteristics and can be used along with palatal vault forms as well as ABO blood groups for racial and individualistic soft tissue oral print in forensic cases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Surendra Dental College and Research Institute, Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, India.
authors.forename: Kg
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Surendra Dental College and Research Institute, Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, India.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Surendra Dental College and Research Institute, Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, India.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bansal
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontology, Maharaja Ganga Singh Dental College and Hospital, Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Basavaraju
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Surendra Dental College and Research Institute, Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, India.
authors.forename: Sk
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sachdeva
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Surendra Dental College and Research Institute, Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, India.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Khosa
keywords: Blood groups; Forensics; Palate