In l967, a symposium was held in London, England at which time the process for standardizing and clarifying all aspects of dermatoglyphics was formulated. The findings of this symposium was published in l968 by the National Foundation for the March of Dimes and has been accepted world wide. The basic premise is that fingertips have on them three basic ridge patterns. They are described as the whorl, the loop, and the arch. Arches are described as either simple or tented.
Simple arches sweep across the fingertip without a triradius or change in direction.
Loops have at least one recurring ridge, a triradius, and a ridge cound of at least one across a recurving ridge. Ulnar loops are those that have their ridges entering or leaving on the ulnar side of the hand. Radial loops have their ridges entering or leaving on the radial side of the hand. In any case, the loops will vary according to size, and shape, but all will have only on triradius. Referring to figure 1c on the following page,look at diagram c, the loop.