Clues To Recognition Of Fungal Origin Of Lytic Skeletal Lesions
Anthropology; blastomycosis; bones; clinical-features; defleshed bones; disease; erosive arthritis; Evolutionary Biology; histoplasmosis; lytic lesion; osteomyelitis; pathology; therapeutic considerations; yaws
The present study addresses the specificity of lyric osseous impact for distinguishing among metastatic cancer, tuberculosis, and fungal disease. Osseous impact is used in this manuscript as a convention to describe the macroscopic appearance of defleshed bones affected by the disease. Osseous changes in the skeleton of a 47-year-old black male, diagnosed in life as having blastomycosis, were characterized and compared to lyric lesions observed in ten individuals with tuberculosis and six with metastatic cancer in the Terry and Hamman-Todd Collections. Apparent distinguishing characteristics are identified. Eroded areas, present as fronts of resorption or the result of space-occupying masses in blastomycosis, with protruding, short, blunt, 1 x 2 mm spicules of new bone, are surrounded by periosteal reaction. These differed from smooth zones of resorption and coalesced lesions, with a smoothed marginal zone and space-occupied appearance-bone-displacing mass-in tuberculosis and lytic (non-permeative) lesions of metastatic cancer. Displacing is a convention (an artificial term) denoting bone resorption and reformation at the outer edge of the tumor mass, giving the impression that the surrounding bone had expanded beyond its original margins. Irregular trabeculae are occasionally preserved in the margins, but remodeling in the form of blunting of those trabeculae is not observed macroscopically in either tuberculosis or metastatic cancer. Two apparently specific lesion types are noted in blastomycosis. Periosteal reaction surrounding fronts of resorption appears specific, at least for nonarticular osseous lyric lesions, among the three entities studied. Remodeling of isolated internal trabeculae in the space-occupying mass lesions of blastomycosis also appears unique among the three disorders studied, Comparison with coccidioidomycosis suggests that extrapolation of blastomycosis findings to other fungal diseases is feasible; description of additional clinically diagnosed cases is awaited. (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Hershkovitz I; Rothschild B M; DuTour O; Greenwald C
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
1998
1998-05
Journal Article or Conference Abstract Publication
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1096-8644(199805)106:1%3C47::aid-ajpa4%3E3.3.co;2-x" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1002/(sici)1096-8644(199805)106:1%3C47::aid-ajpa4%3E3.3.co;2-x</a>
Tropical Ulcer on a Human Tibia from 5000 Years Ago in Northern Italy
skin; Italy; Archaeology; Anthropology; disease; population; yaws; osteomyelitis; climate; semantic confusion; tropical ulcer
The term tropical ulcer, as applied to bone pathology, describes the specific pathologic phenomenon of the presence of a well-defined osteomatous shelf formation on the anteromedial aspect of the tibia. Despite the appellation 'tropical,' this pathology is not geographically limited to tropical regions, although it has not previously been reported from continental Europe. Observations of a 4583 BP burial from the Tanaro River area of Northern Italy represent the first such case. Dating of the site to the time of climate change at the end of the first Glacial suggests that hot-warm, humid conditions may have allowed the occurrence of this bone pathology, the first observed in continental Europe. A second explanation is the possible migration of an individual to Italy from an area that is more conventionally considered tropical. Copyright (C) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Cremasco M M; Merlo F; Fulcheri E; Rothschild B M
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
2015
2015-09
Journal Article or Conference Abstract Publication
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1002/oa.2356" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1002/oa.2356</a>
New thoughts on old bones
hypervitaminosis-a; Rheumatology; yaws
Rothschild B M
Journal of Rheumatology
2001
2001-06
Journal Article
n/a
Congenital syphilis in the archaeological record: Diagnostic insensitivity of osseous lesions
Anthropology; Archaeology; congenital; disease; skeletal manifestations; syphilis; treponemal disease; yaws
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 adults was based on previously validated population criteria for the recognition of syphilis and its distinction from among the other treponemal diseases. Among the 151 juveniles (23.3 per cent of the total series), only one had macroscopic evidence of periosteal disease. The low frequency of recognizable osseous stigmata characteristic of congenital syphilis, combined with the conspicuous absence of pathognomonic dental lesions, make such periosteal lesions insufficiently sensitive criteria for the identification of syphilis in the archaeological record.
Rothschild B M; Rothschild C
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
1997
1997-01
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1212(199701)7:1%3C39::aid-oa313%3E3.3.co;2-a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1002/(sici)1099-1212(199701)7:1%3C39::aid-oa313%3E3.3.co;2-a</a>
Bejel: Acquirable only in childhood?
bejel; crusades; origin; Parasitology; periosteal reaction; skeletal remains; syphilis; treponemal disease; treponematoses; Tropical Medicine; yaws
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 frequency of periosteal reaction in Europe would exclude that diagnosis. Examination of skeletal populations from continental Europe revealed no significant periosteal reaction at the time of and immediately subsequent to the Crusades. Thus, there is no evidence for bejel in Europe, in spite of clear contact (the mechanism of bejel transmission in children) between warring groups, at least during the Crusades. This supports the hypothesis that bejel is a childhood-acquired disease and apparently cannot be contracted in adulthood. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Rothschild B M; Rothschild C; Naples V; Billard M; Panero B
Acta Tropica
2006
2006-10
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.actatropica.2006.07.012" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1016/j.actatropica.2006.07.012</a>