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Adipositas and metabolic bone disorder in a 16th century Upper Austrian infant crypt mummy—An interdisciplinary palaeopathological insight into historical aristocratic life

We describe here the results of a multidisciplinary study on an infant mummy from 16th century Upper Austria buried in the crypt of the family of the Counts of Starhemberg. The macroscopic-anthropological, radiological (whole-body CT scan), histological (skin tissue), and radiocarbon isotope investi...

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Autores principales: Nerlich, Andreas G., Panzer, Stephanie, Wimmer, Judith, Hamann, Christian, Peschel, Oliver K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9643145/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36388889
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.979670
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author Nerlich, Andreas G.
Panzer, Stephanie
Wimmer, Judith
Hamann, Christian
Peschel, Oliver K.
author_facet Nerlich, Andreas G.
Panzer, Stephanie
Wimmer, Judith
Hamann, Christian
Peschel, Oliver K.
author_sort Nerlich, Andreas G.
collection PubMed
description We describe here the results of a multidisciplinary study on an infant mummy from 16th century Upper Austria buried in the crypt of the family of the Counts of Starhemberg. The macroscopic-anthropological, radiological (whole-body CT scan), histological (skin tissue), and radiocarbon isotope investigations suggested a male infant of 10–18 months' age, most likely dying between 1550 and 1635 CE (probably Reichard Wilhelm, 1625–1626 CE), that presented with evidence of metabolic bone disease with significant bilateral flaring of costochondral joints resembling “rachitic rosary” of the ribs, along with straight long bones and lack of fractures or subperiosteal bleeding residues. Although incompletely developed, the osteopathology points toward rickets, without upper or lower extremities long bone deformation. The differential diagnosis is vitamin C deficiency (scurvy) (also with an incomplete presentation, although overlap between both disorders may be present). As additional pathology, there was significantly enlarged subcutaneous fat tissue (thickness more than 1 cm at the navel and thighs and longitudinal creases of the skin) along with a histologically enlarged subcutaneous fat layer consistent with infantile adipositas as a coincident disorder. Finally, remnants of lung tissue with pleural adhesion of the right lung indicate possibly lethal pneumonia, a disease with an increased prevalence in vitamin D deficient infants. Ultimately, the skull presented with extensive destruction of the bones of the base and dislocation of the bones of the skull squama. These changes, however, are most likely post-mortal pseudopathology, the result of a burial in a flat, narrow coffin because there were no bone fractures or residues of bleeding/tissue reaction that would have occurred whilst the patient was alive.
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spelling pubmed-96431452022-11-15 Adipositas and metabolic bone disorder in a 16th century Upper Austrian infant crypt mummy—An interdisciplinary palaeopathological insight into historical aristocratic life Nerlich, Andreas G. Panzer, Stephanie Wimmer, Judith Hamann, Christian Peschel, Oliver K. Front Med (Lausanne) Medicine We describe here the results of a multidisciplinary study on an infant mummy from 16th century Upper Austria buried in the crypt of the family of the Counts of Starhemberg. The macroscopic-anthropological, radiological (whole-body CT scan), histological (skin tissue), and radiocarbon isotope investigations suggested a male infant of 10–18 months' age, most likely dying between 1550 and 1635 CE (probably Reichard Wilhelm, 1625–1626 CE), that presented with evidence of metabolic bone disease with significant bilateral flaring of costochondral joints resembling “rachitic rosary” of the ribs, along with straight long bones and lack of fractures or subperiosteal bleeding residues. Although incompletely developed, the osteopathology points toward rickets, without upper or lower extremities long bone deformation. The differential diagnosis is vitamin C deficiency (scurvy) (also with an incomplete presentation, although overlap between both disorders may be present). As additional pathology, there was significantly enlarged subcutaneous fat tissue (thickness more than 1 cm at the navel and thighs and longitudinal creases of the skin) along with a histologically enlarged subcutaneous fat layer consistent with infantile adipositas as a coincident disorder. Finally, remnants of lung tissue with pleural adhesion of the right lung indicate possibly lethal pneumonia, a disease with an increased prevalence in vitamin D deficient infants. Ultimately, the skull presented with extensive destruction of the bones of the base and dislocation of the bones of the skull squama. These changes, however, are most likely post-mortal pseudopathology, the result of a burial in a flat, narrow coffin because there were no bone fractures or residues of bleeding/tissue reaction that would have occurred whilst the patient was alive. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-10-26 /pmc/articles/PMC9643145/ /pubmed/36388889 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.979670 Text en Copyright © 2022 Nerlich, Panzer, Wimmer, Hamann and Peschel. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Medicine
Nerlich, Andreas G.
Panzer, Stephanie
Wimmer, Judith
Hamann, Christian
Peschel, Oliver K.
Adipositas and metabolic bone disorder in a 16th century Upper Austrian infant crypt mummy—An interdisciplinary palaeopathological insight into historical aristocratic life
title Adipositas and metabolic bone disorder in a 16th century Upper Austrian infant crypt mummy—An interdisciplinary palaeopathological insight into historical aristocratic life
title_full Adipositas and metabolic bone disorder in a 16th century Upper Austrian infant crypt mummy—An interdisciplinary palaeopathological insight into historical aristocratic life
title_fullStr Adipositas and metabolic bone disorder in a 16th century Upper Austrian infant crypt mummy—An interdisciplinary palaeopathological insight into historical aristocratic life
title_full_unstemmed Adipositas and metabolic bone disorder in a 16th century Upper Austrian infant crypt mummy—An interdisciplinary palaeopathological insight into historical aristocratic life
title_short Adipositas and metabolic bone disorder in a 16th century Upper Austrian infant crypt mummy—An interdisciplinary palaeopathological insight into historical aristocratic life
title_sort adipositas and metabolic bone disorder in a 16th century upper austrian infant crypt mummy—an interdisciplinary palaeopathological insight into historical aristocratic life
topic Medicine
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9643145/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36388889
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.979670
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