Mindy C. Pitre , Madeleine Mant , Timothy Abel , Linda Johnson Wood
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objective
To evaluate pathological lesions suggesting the presence of rickets and to place the diagnosis into bioarchaeological and historical context.
Materials
The remains of a 3-year ± 12-month-old child discovered during a rescue excavation in Heuvelton, New York.
Methods
We examined the individual macroscopically and conducted a differential diagnosis following established protocols in the palaeopathological literature.
Results
Bony change on the orbits, mandible, ribs, clavicles, left scapula, humerii, radii, ulnae, femora, tibiae, fibulae (e.g., porosity, diaphyseal thickening, flaring, bowing), and dental lesions were recorded.
Conclusions
We demonstrate that the child likely presented with vitamin D deficiency rickets during crawling and as they learned to walk.
Significance
This example offers an important contribution to the bioarchaeological literature, as few cases of rickets have been recorded in rural North America using updated diagnostic criteria and little is known of the health and lifeways of early settlers in 19th-century upstate New York.
Limitations
It is not possible to ascertain the precise aetiology of this child’s rachitic state and to compare this individual with others in the population.
Suggestions for further research
Examination (and re-assessment) of other North and South American skeletal assemblages for signs of vitamin D deficiency rickets following current bioarchaeological standards.
期刊介绍:
Paleopathology is the study and application of methods and techniques for investigating diseases and related conditions from skeletal and soft tissue remains. The International Journal of Paleopathology (IJPP) will publish original and significant articles on human and animal (including hominids) disease, based upon the study of physical remains, including osseous, dental, and preserved soft tissues at a range of methodological levels, from direct observation to molecular, chemical, histological and radiographic analysis. Discussion of ways in which these methods can be applied to the reconstruction of health, disease and life histories in the past is central to the discipline, so the journal would also encourage papers covering interpretive and theoretical issues, and those that place the study of disease at the centre of a bioarchaeological or biocultural approach. Papers dealing with historical evidence relating to disease in the past (rather than history of medicine) will also be published. The journal will also accept significant studies that applied previously developed techniques to new materials, setting the research in the context of current debates on past human and animal health.