MARFAN SYNDROME - The language of the hands!

Probably you can't help here then.

I first read the granddaughter, about 11 or 12, who was of normal height and round in shape. I had noticed the tall lady in the crowd in the back ground. The grand daughter had the most unusual 'missing C' I've ever seen and asked to take photos. She was so excited about her reading that she told her grandmother who turned out to be the tall lady. I was excited to compare the dgs and take her photos, too. She has a loop in the same place as the odd ridges were in the granddaughter's palm, which explained somewhat the differences.

I may have read another granddaughter as I asked to take photos of a girl with a comb pattern between the middle and ring fingers, missing C and B is almost not there... it took zooming in on the image on my monitor to see it. I originally thought both C and B were missing. There were similarities between the two girls.

The grandmother has many extra creases and deep ones even on the distal tips, which I don't usually see except for thumb. Radial loops on ring and little on right and radial peacock on ring on the left. She looked healthy just taller than usual and slender.

Martijn, where did you come across the term olichodactyly?
I can't find any reference to it on the internet (apart from where you have written it).
Closest word I found was oligodactyly (fewer than 5 fingers or toes on a hand or foot).

Thanks Lynn... I somewhere lost the first letter of the word, I have corrected the error - the word is now correctly written as: 'dolichodactyly'.

Martijn,
How would you classify these? I have close ups of palms and fingers if you need to double check anything.



p.s.: I realize you can't get actual measurements, but I thought you would be able to get ratios.

I posted here because it appeared that you were working on a way of observing Marfan's from hand features. This particular feature, a measurement, is another feature that can be observed without having to make contact with the hands. This is the same person I mentioned earlier in this thread.

In addition to her unusual height, taller than the men at the event, her fingers have extra ceases, which is another feature you have listed.

She also has other not so common features that can be found with syndromes such as radial loops on the ring fingers and at least one Sydney line, if not two.

I think her left hand is pretty close to being accurately viewed as you see it. If anything, the middle finger might be a little longer as it may be ever so slightly flexed.

I didn't see your information about the size of the wrists, I'll go back and check.

The head line in her right hand definitely goes to the edge of her palm. Clearer in my higher quality close ups of the palm. The only question as to the left hand is the fragmented sections that take it to the edge.

Well, anyway.. thanks for taking a look. Seems then like there's not much reason to bother to look for Marfan's in the general population by those of us reading hands in the public.

Martijn (admin) wrote:
Hello Felicity,

That's a nice question!

I did a little bit of litererature research on that, and it is interesting to see that these people generally are able to live a happy life, with normal levels of the traits depression and anxiety; but they do tend to develop an introverted personality.

See the quotes from two studies below:


Psychosocial adaptation in adolescents and young adults with Marfan syndrome: an exploratory study.

http://jmg.bmj.com/content/35/5/405.abstract

"Most patients emphasised the need for accurate information about the illness immediately after knowing the diagnosis and all found psychological support helpful. Depression and anxiety levels were higher in the female than in the male group, without being significantly different from the normal population. Nevertheless, most patients have come to terms with their disease and consider themselves happy most of the time."


Determinants of Quality of Life in Marfan Syndrome

http://psy.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/49/3/243

"In line with these arguments, we found a number of studies indicating that MFS imposes a burden on daily life; in particular, on school attendance; on work opportunities and social behavior; and on the development of an introverted personality, with associated defensive psychological traits, such as denial and isolation."


Obviously... and introverted personality is also associated with a water-hand. But I also think that the 'water hand' is the most vulnerable hand type of all, and generally they tend to be more sensitive for negative emotions (including: depression, anxiety).

But I also think that people with Marfan syndrome tend to have a more 'happy' personality type than one can generally observe in the water hand.

Hopefully, this answers your excellent question...

... Above I mentioned that studies have pointed out that Marfan people tend 'to develop an introverted personality'.

Interestingly, my recent Extraversion-study (not related to Marfan syndrome) has pointed out that introverts tend to have hands characterised by e.g.: longer fingers and a narrower palm.

This creates a clear pattern of similarities: introverts & Marfan people have similar-like hand characteristics.


Pretty fascinating... the combination of both examples appears clear confirming evidence that Sheldon's ectomorph somatotype indeed correlates with at least some personality traits (Sheldon mentioned for the ectomorph type: inhibited, introverted, hypersensitive to pain, and secretive).