A new study out of Malaysia has found that adults with acute dermatitis are four times more likely than healthy adults to fail fingerprint verification tests, reports Reuters.

The small study looked at 200 people who had MyKad Malaysian national identity cards, half with dermatitis affecting either thumb, and half with healthy thumbs. The researchers gave each patient three tries to match the fingerprints. Some 27% of the patients with dermatitis failed, while only two percent of healthy participants failed.

Dermatitis is a skin inflammation that usually comes about from an allergic reaction. It causes cracked or swollen skin that can alter the crevice pattern on a thumbprint and render it unreadable. A study out of Denmark found that about 15% of the world’s population will have hand dermatitis.

The incidence of dermatitis among the population may cause issues for biometrics and fingerprint recognition.

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