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Human thumb consists of three phalanges and lacks metacarpal? A morphometric study on the long bones of the hand

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Abstract

Purpose

For many years, it was thought that the thumb consists of just two phalanges that differentiate it from the other four medial triphalangeal fingers. But there are some old reports that few former scientists believed the thumb has three phalanges and it lacked a metacarpal, and the thumb metacarpal is a phalanx. So this anthropometric study was carried out by investigating the morphology of the long bones of the hand and correlations between the thumb metacarpal and other miniature long bones of the hand.

Methods

We studied anterior–posterior X-ray images of the right hands of 80 individuals from 18 to 65 years old. The exploration targets were the length of all metacarpals (MC), proximal phalanges (PP), middle phalanges (MP), and distal phalanges (DP). Friedman Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance and Dunn’s post hoc test were carried out to compare the means of all variables. The correlation between all quantitative factors was done by Spearman Rank Correlation (Spearman's Rho) coefficient.

Results

Our results showed that the length of the phalanges and the total length of the fingers are independent of the related metacarpal length (P < 0.001). Also, the thumb metacarpal length in comparison to all bones of the hand was significantly different from all long bones of the hand except the proximal phalanx of the middle finger (P = 1).

Conclusion

Based on the morphology of the long bones of the hand and the high similarity between the thumb metacarpal and phalanges especially the proximal phalanx of the middle finger, it can be suggested that the current thumb metacarpal is a proximal phalanx of the thumb.

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Abbreviations

DP:

Distal phalanges

MC:

Metacarpal

MP:

Middle phalanges

PP:

Proximal phalanges

TPT:

Triphalangeal thumb

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Research Deputy, Arak University of Medical Sciences. We are grateful to Shima Masoudi Minab and Negar Kornokar for collecting the X-ray images. There are no conflicts of interest.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, 3819693345, Iran

    Seyed Mohammad Jafar Haeri

  2. Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Babak Ebrahimi

  3. Department of Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran

    Marjan Faghih

  4. Department of Physiotherapy, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran

    Seyedeh Saeideh Babazadeh-Zavieh

  5. Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, 81744176, Iran

    Gholam Reza Dashti

Authors
  1. Seyed Mohammad Jafar Haeri
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  2. Babak Ebrahimi
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  4. Seyedeh Saeideh Babazadeh-Zavieh
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  5. Gholam Reza Dashti
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Contributions

SMJH: study concept and design, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting of the manuscript. GRD: study concept and design, critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content, study supervision. BE: drafting of the manuscript, critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content, acquisition of data. MF: analysis and interpretation of data, critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content. SSBZ: acquisition of data, critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Seyed Mohammad Jafar Haeri or Gholam Reza Dashti.

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Haeri, S.M.J., Ebrahimi, B., Faghih, M. et al. Human thumb consists of three phalanges and lacks metacarpal? A morphometric study on the long bones of the hand. Surg Radiol Anat 44, 1101–1109 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-022-02986-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-022-02986-9

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