Diagnosis of diseases of bone, without benefit of soft tissue, in vivo observation, or blood component analysis requires the development of new criteria for diagnosis. Analyzing chimpanzee skeletal populations, applying such criteria (e.g., lesion…
Paravertebral osseous masses in reptiles have been attributed to Paget's disease on the basis of histology. Histologically recognized mosaic architecture and cement lines, however, lack specificity. A Varanus dorianus with this condition was…
The purpose of this study was to assess birds as a potential model for osteoarthritis. Compromised by confounding factors, it has not been possible to clearly delineate causation in humans. Nonhuman mammals manifest osteoarthritis in the natural…
Uncertainties as to the nature and implications of osteoarthritis and calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease (CPPD) in primates were subject to critical review through examination of 153 prosimians and 1,250 Old World non-prosimian primates.…
Perspectives are in the eye of the beholder and are expanded with increased scrutiny (e.g., magnification). The term porosity' for macroscopically or radiologically identifiable discontinuity in bone is so variably applied as to be incomprehensible…
Recognition of decompression syndrome-related pathology (in the form of avascular necrosis) reveals diving behaviour in mosasaurs. Macroscopic and radiologic examination was performed to identify linear bone death characteristic of avascular necrosis…
Recognition of cancer in extreme antiquity has been limited to osteomas in mosasaurs and haemangiomas and growths of unclear origin in dinosaurs. We describe a metastatic cancer in a dinosaur.
Alterations of vertebral endplates have long been a subject of interest, but are of unclear clinical significance. The vertebral columns of a cohort-based sample of 850 individuals were therefore evaluated for vertebral endplate defects, noting…
The opportunity to examine the defleshed skeleton of an individual diagnosed in life (Hamann-Todd collection, individual 2036) afforded a unique opportunity to demonstrate the bone damage characteristic of at least one form of juvenile rheumatoid…
The hypothesis of disease-related large mammal extinction has new support. A unique pathologic zone of resorption was first noticed in a Hiscock Mammut americanum metacarpal. The pathognomonic zone of resorption was present in fifty-nine (52%) of 113…
Recognition of muscle attachment sites and their modification has been an important tool in anthropologic and paleontologic research, but has been compromised by limited ability to recognise sites of tendinous attachments. We investigated bone-tendon…
Presence of spine and sacroiliac involvement and the nature and distribution of the erosive lesions allow definitive diagnosis of spondyloarthropathy. Thus, spondyloarthropathy was identified in Theropithecus, Papio, Cercopithecus, Macaca, Colobus,…
Bone pathology provides a window to environment and predation, allowing confident comparison of fossils and subfossils with their modern descendents. Exclusive of modern contaminated environments, the frequency of bone disease in frogs does not seem…
Odontochelys semitestacea, the oldest known turtle, from the Late Triassic of China, shows a pathology. Sharply defined, focal depressions were noted on the articular surfaces of both humeri, documenting avascular necrosis. Diving habits of Mesozoic…
Recognition of avascular necrosis through propodial head subsidence in fossils indicates that plesiosaurs were susceptible to decompression syndrome and implies deep, prolonged or repetitive diving behavior for these animals. Contrary to the…
The paucity of convincing evidence for congenital bone lesions of syphilis in the archaeological record led to study of the human remains from the Buffalo site in West Virginia, dated at 550-650 years BP. The diagnosis of syphilis (venereal) in…
The reliability of visual examination of de-fleshed bones was assessed for detection of postcranial metastatic disease in individuals known to have had cancer. This was compared with standard clinical radiological techniques. The skeletons of 128…
The reliability of visual examination of defleshed bones was assessed for detection of postcranial metastatic disease in individuals known to have had cancer. This was compared with standard clinical radiologic techniques. The skeletons of 128…
Characterization of the nature and skeletal distribution of gout was accomplished in a Chamoru (Chamorros) population with predilection to the disease. Uniform excavation by the gouty diathesis produces a punched-out appearance to these predominantly…
Documentation of the antiquity and tracking of the derivation of human treponemal diseases have been complicated by an inability to distinguish among these diseases biochemically, histologically, and immunologically. Skeletal impact, as a population…
Bejel clearly has a long history in the Middle East and the Sudan, but was it transmitted to Europe? As the major manifestation of bejel is presence of periosteal reaction in 20-40% of afflicted populations, absence of significant population…
Analyses of New World skeletal populations for the presence of erosions an other osseous alterations and their character, distribution, and radiologic appearance shows that osteoarthritis is predominantly a disease of animals raised in artificially…
Bone and joint alterations were characterized in the skeletons of 498 individuals age 64+ who died in Northeast Ohio between 1913 and 1933. Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis, rare in young individuals, was found in 27% of men over age 65,…
Decompression syndrome (caisson disease or the "the bends") resulting in avascular necrosis has been documented in mosasaurs, sauropterygians, ichthyosaurs, and turtles from the Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous, but it was unclear that this disease…
Identification of a 3100-year-old lithopedion in the Archaic Southwest antedates its first clinical notation by 21 00 years. It was only the ''autopsy'' of time (excavation of the site) that allowed its presence to be brought to light.
