Naslov
Osteological evidence for spinal tuberculosis in medieval skeletal series from Croatia

Autori
Bedić, Željka

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
Abstracts Book of the 18th European Meeting of the Paleopathology Association / Teschler-Nicola, Maria ; Baumann, Wilfried - Beč : Naturhistoriches Museum Wien, 2010, 40-40

Skup
18th European Meeting of the Paleopathology Association

Mjesto i datum
Beč, Austrija, 23.08.2010. - 26.08.2010

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Poster

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
spinal tuberculosis; medieval period; Croatia

Sažetak
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that is most often transmitted through the respiratory system. The primary infection usually starts in the lungs, after which it disseminates by the blood stream to other parts of the body – the kidneys, brain and bones. The spine is the most common (in approximately 40% of cases) affected bone element (Aufderheide & Rodriguez-Martin, 1998.). In most cases of spinal tuberculosis an abscess erodes the anterior part of the vertebral body and the intervertebral disc, and then destroys the vertebral body generating the characteristic gibbus of Pott’s disease. In pre-antibiotic times this deformity was present in nearly 60% of cases involving spinal tuberculosis (Reinhart, 1932.). Four cases of spinal tuberculosis from Croatia, all dated to the mediaeval period, are presented in this analysis. Three of these come from Croatia’s eastern Adriatic coast and islands (the cemeteries of Velim, Nin and Pag in use from the 8th-14th centuries) while the oldest case was recovered from the Stari Jankovci cemetery in continental Croatia whose use is dated from the 7th-8th centuries. In all cases pathological changes were noted in females older than 20 years, and all of them exhibited one or more collapsed vertebrae resulting in both ankylosis and kyphosis of the thoracic spine. Differential diagnosis excluded osteomyelitis, vertebral compression fracture, rheumatoid and septic arthritis, and other diseases that affect the spine. The described osteological cases of tuberculosis add to our understanding of the history of this disease in Croatia, as well as to the data set of previously published archaeologically derived cases of tuberculosis necessary for understanding the epidemiological dynamics of this disease.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Arheologija, Etnologija i antropologija

POVEZANOST RADA