The purpose of this study is to anatomically evaluate the impact on the patient intra vitam of an endocranial condition on a late 20th century skull housed in the Section of Legal Medicine of the ...University of Foggia (Foggia, Apulia, Italy). After performing a retrospective diagnosis, the condition is framed in the broader context of studies on this pathology. An anthropological and radiological analysis (X-ray and CT scan imaging) made it possible to confirm the preliminary information and to detail the osteological diagnosis of HFI. In order to assess the impact on the cerebral surface of the endocranial growth a 3D endocast was obtained using the Software OrtogOnBlender. The skull is demonstrated to have belonged to a female senile individual known, from limited documentary evidence, to have suffered from a psychiatric condition during her life. The final diagnosis is hyperostosis frontalis interna (HFI), Type D. Although a direct correlation between the demonstrated intracranial bony growth and the onset of the patient's psychiatric condition is difficult to retrospectively ascertain, the pressure exerted on this female individual's frontal lobe may have contributed to further degenerative behavioural changes in the last years of her life. This case adds to previous knowledge, especially from the palaeopathological literature, on this condition and, for the first time, presents a neuroanatomical approach to assess the global impact of the disease.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Despite advancements in the current standard of care, cardiovascular diseases continue to hold the top spot as the leading cause of mortality worldwide. The development of atherosclerosis is the most ...common culprit behind ailments such as myocardial infarction, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. Consequently, it imposes a significant burden on life expectancy, quality of life, morbidity, and societal costs. Both increased cholesterol levels and the activation of the inflammatory cascade are known as cardiovascular risk facts. Their relative weight is in the spotlight of curent biomedical research. Newly published data shed light on the role of inflammation in determining cardiovascular risk irrespective of cholesterol levels and cholesterol-lowering therapies.
This paper investigates trabecular bone ontogenetic changes in two different Polish populations, one prehistoric and the other historical. The studied populations are from the Brześć Kujawski region ...in Kujawy (north-central Poland), one from the Neolithic Period (4500-4000 BC) and one from the Middle Ages (twelfth-sixteenth centuries AD), in total 62 vertebral specimens (32 males, 30 females). Eight morphometric parameters acquired from microCT scan images were analysed. Two-way ANOVA after Box-Cox transformation and multifactorial regression model were calculated. A significant decrease in percentage bone volume fraction (BV/TV; %) with age at death was observed in the studied sample; Tb.N (trabecular number) was also significantly decreased with age; trabecular separation (Tb.Sp) increased with advancing age; connectivity density (Conn.D) was negatively correlated with biological age and higher in the Neolithic population. These data are found to be compatible with data from the current biomedical literature, while no loss of horizontal trabeculae was recorded as would be expected based on modern osteoporosis.
Tuberculosis (TB) is an ancient chronic infectious disease that remains a global health concern. In human remains, the most common and characteristic clinical signs are the skeletal modifications ...involving the spine, such as in Pott’s disease. Diagnosing TB in ancient human remains is challenging. Therefore, in this systematic review, the authors investigated the studies assessing molecular diagnosis of Pott’s disease in ancient human remains with the intention to survey the literature, map the evidence, and identify gaps and future perspectives on TB in paleopathology. Our systematic review offers a full contextualization of the history of Pott’s disease in ancient times. Our search strategy was performed between August 2022 and March 2023. The authors initially identified 340 records, and 74 studies were finally included and assessed for qualitative analysis. Due to non-specific clinical signs associated with TB, how best to diagnose tuberculosis in human remains still represents a central point. Nevertheless, ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis, lipid biomarkers, and spoligotyping might be extremely useful tools in the study of TB in human remains. Moreover, we propose the extraction and study of immune response genes involved in innate and adaptive immunity versus Mycobacterium spp. as an innovative and vastly overlooked approach in TB paleopathology. Complementary methodologies should be integrated to provide the best approach to the study of TB in human remains.
SARS-CoV-2 infection can affect all human beings, including pregnant women. Thus, understanding the immunological changes induced by the virus during pregnancy is nowadays of pivotal importance. ...Here, using peripheral blood from 14 pregnant women with asymptomatic or mild SARS-CoV-2 infection, we investigate cell proliferation and cytokine production, measure plasma levels of 62 cytokines, and perform a 38-parameter mass cytometry analysis. Our results show an increase in low density neutrophils but no lymphopenia or gross alterations of white blood cells, which display normal levels of differentiation, activation or exhaustion markers and show well preserved functionality. Meanwhile, the plasma levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-1RA, IL-10 and IL-19 are increased, those of IL-17, PD-L1 and D-dimer are decreased, but IL-6 and other inflammatory molecules remain unchanged. Our profiling of antiviral immune responses may thus help develop therapeutic strategies to avoid virus-induced damages during pregnancy.
In this communication, we wish to remember the important historical role played by Marcel Proust's father, the now mostly forgotten Achille-Adrien Proust (1834-1903).
His career, scientific interests ...and, above all, his brilliant intuitions and suggestions in the fight against cholera in the 19th century are recalled.
His role in the promotion of a globally effective vision of public hygiene and health is stressed as a bright example for modern physicians fighting contemporary epidemics.
Marfan Syndrome (MFS) is an autosomal dominant disease caused in most cases by mutations in the FNB1 gene, which encodes for fibrillin 1. MFS does not alway shows typical phenotypic signs. Indeed, ...the occurrence of sudden death of unknown cause is increasingly seen in young adults without ante mortem preexisting pathology to explain the event. In many cases the diagnosis of Marfan Syndrome (MFS) is carried out post mortem, especially in cases where the diseases external phenotype is absent. Here is reported a case of a young woman who died during a twin pregnancy investigated with medico-legal and forensic anthropological procedures. The autopsy showed the absence of a typical marfanoid habitus and the presence of a dissecting aneurysm of the aorta with histopathological degeneration of the aortic elastic fibers. The genetic investigation revealed two previously undetected de novo mutations of the FBN1 gene: c.T6181C: p.C2061R and c.G1415A: p.C472Y. This new mutations, together with a comprehensive analysis, demonstrates the existence of a causal relationship between these mutations and the dissecting aneurysm of the aorta. This also stresses the importance of a combined multidisciplinary approach to this condition which includes morphological and genetic studies.
Gluten consumption has been controversially associated with obesity in previous studies. We sought to examine this association at the worldwide level.
Country specific data were obtained from 168 ...countries. Scatter plots, bivariate, partial correlation and multiple linear regression models were used to explore and compare the coincidence between obesity prevalence and consumption of gluten, non-gluten cereal protein and total cereal protein respectively. The established risk factors of obesity: caloric intake, sedentary lifestyle, urbanization, socioeconomic status, meat protein intake and sugar consumption were included in analyses as potential confounders. The 168 countries were also stratified into developing and developed country groupings for further examination of the relationships.
Worldwide, bivariate correlation analyses revealed that the strength and direction of correlations between all variables (independent, dependent and potential confounders) were at similar levels. Obesity prevalence was positively correlated to gluten consumption but was negatively correlated to consumption of non-gluten cereal protein, and was in almost nil correlation to total cereal protein consumption. These relationships were similar across all countries (n= 168), developed country grouping (N=44) and developing country grouping (n=124). When caloric intake, Gross Domestic Product at Purchasing Power Parity, sedentary lifestyle and urbanization were kept statistically constant in the partial correlation analysis, obesity was significantly correlated to gluten consumption in all countries, developed country grouping and developing country grouping, and was significantly but inversely and weakly correlated to non-gluten cereal protein in all countries and developing countries, and was in almost nil correlation to total cereal protein in all country groupings. Globally, stepwise multiple regression analysis, when all the independent variables and potential confounding factors were included, selected consumption of sugar as the variable having the greatest influence on obesity with R
= 0.510, while gluten was placed second increasing R
to 0.596. Gluten consumption may have been emerging as an inconspicuous, but significant cause of obesity. While Westernization has driven the diet patterns worldwide to incorporate more gluten crops, obesity prevalence projection methods may estimate future obesity rates poorly if gluten consumption is not considered.
In 1950 on Mount Zlatý kůň (‘Golden Horse’) in modern-day Czech Republic a system of caves was discovered. During many years of research in this area, human and animal osteological remains have been ...excavated, among which the most interesting ones were nine fragments of a female skull, now dated to ca. 43,000 yrs BP which are one of the earliest known anatomically modern humans in Eurasia. The aim of this research was to use purely digital techniques to: (1) to reconstruct the skull based on the 3D data of preserved fragments, (2) to approximate the probable appearance of the female it belonged to, and (3) to analyze the calculated shape of the reconstructed mandible and volume of the neurocranium in the context of similarities and differences with other representatives of the genus Homo. Computer techniques used in this research constitute a new, original approach to the problem of 3D analyses and may be useful primarily in bioarchaeological sciences, where metric analyses of the most valuable bone artifacts are often severely limited due to the incompleteness of the material available for research. The digital techniques presented here may also contribute significantly to the field of surgery, with the possibility of being adapted for applications in cranial prosthetics and post-traumatic reconstructive surgery.
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