A STUDY CASE: LESIONS AND MODIFICATIONS IN THE THORACIC REGION OF A EUROPEAN PERSON IN A MISSIONARY CONTEXT. RÍO GRANDE, TIERRA DEL FUEGO, ARGENTINA

GARCIA LABORDE PAMELA; D'ANGELO DEL CAMPO, M; GUICHON R.A.

Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Congreso; VI PALEOPATHOLOGY ASSOCIATION MEETING IN SOUTH AMERICA; 2015

The objective of this work is to present the pathological modifications and discuss the differential diagnosis of an individual recovered in the cemetery of the Salesian Mission ?Nuestra Señora de La Candelaria?. This cemetery (1897-1947) was used for religious, first settlers and Selk?nam natives. The genetic information revealed this individual?s mitochondrial DNA was from European lineageand was buried surrounded by Native Americans (Stone, personal communication). Sex and age analyses revealed that the skeleton belonged to a male of 35-45 years old (Buikstra y Ubelaker 1994).The thoracic region was the area most affected pathologically. The articular facets of the sternoclavicular and sternocostal joints show extensive osteophytes. The vertebral column shows proliferation of osteophytes in the margin of the body in all cervical vertebrae, and to a lesser degree in dorsal and lumbar vertebrae. The cervical vertebrae show atlantoaxial osteoarthritis and uncoartrosis (Campo 2003). The articular facets of intervertebrals show modifications (extensive osteophytes and eburnation). Schmörl nodes/nodules are visible in five dorsal and one lumbar vertebrae. The ribs present the greatest modifications, bilaterally, and in their sternal end show ossifications that are visually different to the rest of the rib, which could be attributed to the ossification of the costal cartilage. This alteration is a proliferation of bone tissue with holes of different sizes, rounded edges and new articular facets.We outline some ideas to help discuss the diagnosis:?Tuberculosis: suggested as the main cause of death in a missionary context (Casali 2011); however, none of the ribs show periosteal reaction (Roberts and Buikstra 2003; Santos and Roberts 2006; Santos and Suby 2012).?Tietze syndrome: it is an inflammation of the costal cartilages. Its cause is unknown, but it is related to chronic respiratory conditions (coughing). Although this condition sometimes produces the ossification of the cartilages, in this case it could be discarded because it is a rare unilateral syndrome that affects a few cartilages (Jimenez Cisneros et al. 1979; Cabo Lopez et al. 2000).?Thoracic-abdominal condrosarcoma: it is the most frequent rib tumor and develops accompanied by calcification of the cartilaginous matrix (Fuenzalida et al. 2012). Even though in the written sources there is no mention to tumors or cancers, we cannot discard the presence of a malignant tumor as the cause of such pathologies.