LIP FORENSICS; CHEILOSCOPIC PATTERN AMONG POPULATION OF PUNJAB, PAKISTAN.

Abstract

Introduction: Personal identity is an attribute of a mankind which makes him or her unique. Cheiloscopy is one of the sciences which is used to study and examine the lip prints pattern in order to establish the personal identity in Forensic Medicine. Objectives: To categorize lip patterns in female population of different divisions of Punjab, Pakistan according to Suzuki and Tsuchihashi’s classification. Study Design: Descriptive, Cross-sectional study. Setting: The present study was conducted on 357 female students of 1^st, 2nd and 3^rd year of University Medical and Dental College, Faisalabad in the department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology. Period: March-June, 2018. Methods: After obtaining informed consent students were asked to stand erect and their lip prints were taken on the glass slide. Next carbon black powder was dispensed on the slide and the latent lip print pattern was obtained. The slide was preserved by using cellophane tape and lip prits patterns were scanned. These patterns were then categorized according to Suzuki and Tsuchihashi’s classification by using Software Adobe Photoshop version 6.0. Results: The results showed that most participants were from central Punjab (70%) followed by Southern Punjab (19%), Western Punjab (9.6%) and Northern Punjab (1.4%). The most common lip print pattern was Type I (66%), second was Type II (17.3%), then Type IV (7.1%), after that Type III (5.1%), Type Iʹ(2.5%) & last was Type V (1.7%). Conclusion: The most common lip print pattern in females of Punjab, Pakistan is Type I while the least common is Type V.