Objective - to study the qualitative and quantitative indicators of papillary patterns of the elderly women distal phalanges. Material and methods. Papillary patterns were studied with the help of the «Malachite» software-hardware complex. Types of friction ridge patterns (arc, radial and ulnar loops, whorl) were determined; the prevalence of each type of pattern on all fingers of the right and left hands and the symmetry of friction ridge patterns on homologous fingers were studied in 169 elderly women. Formulas for each type of pattern on the fingers of both hands were developed. Statistical analysis of the study results was performed using the SPSS 22.0 software Results. The ulnar loops were recorded most frequently; the second most frequently found were whorls and radial loops, and radial loops and arcs were the rarest patterns. Statistically significant bilateral differences were found in the prevalence of whorls and arcs on fingers of left and right hands: the largest number of whorls was recorded on the fingers of the right hand, the largest number of arcs - on the fingers of the left hand. The symmetrical patterns were most frequently found on the fifth fingers, and significantly less frequent - on the second fingers. Conclusions. The studied features of skin patterns are markers that are characteristic for the ridged skin of the distal phalanges of elderly women.