Harris' lines in adults: An open problem 



Lubos Vyhnanek and Milan Stloukal 



More than 30 years ago Harris drew 

 attention to the characteristic meta- 

 physeal transverse lines found in the 

 x-ray pictures of the long bones, espe- 

 cially in children. He rightly concluded 

 that these lines represented the conse- 

 quences of the temporary arrest of 

 growth which could be caused by dif- 

 ferent factors (Harris 1933). The term 

 "lines" refers to the radiological pic- 

 tures in reality; they constitute zones of 

 lamellar bone (Figure 1) which appear 

 as lines when tangentially projected in 

 the x-ray picture. They develop during 

 the growth of the bones as the result of a 

 temporary growth mechanism distur- 

 bance of cartilaginous cells and of os- 

 teoblasts (Goodman et al. 1984). These 

 zones can be best demonstrated in the 

 long bones, although the temporary ar- 

 rest of growth of course involves the 

 entire skeleton (Steinbock 1976). With 

 renewed growth and during its further 

 course, the zones remain in place and 

 appear therefore successively more and 

 more distant from the epiphyseal level 

 in the diaphyseal direction. They 

 usually — and in some cases very 

 early — undergo resorption and disap- 

 pear; in other cases they remain appar- 

 ent up to an advanced age (Gam and 

 Schwager 1967). In tribute to the author 

 who described them the lines are called 

 Harris' lines. 



Even this very schematic presenta- 

 tion of Harris' lines includes the fea- 

 tures which it is necessary to remember 

 with respect to their application in an- 

 thropological research. In the first 



place, these lines never represent the 

 full registration of all periods of tempo- 

 rary arrest of growth. Their absence 

 never means that the individual did not 

 suffer from any disease or hunger 

 period in his past history. The laws gov- 

 erning the persistence of Harris' lines 

 up to adult age are unknown. It cannot 

 be assumed that the most prominent or 

 most recent Harris" lines are preserved 

 because clinical studies prove this is 

 not so. 



A broad variety of factors provoke 

 Harris' lines (Cohen and Armelagos 

 1984). Harris' lines are found after in- 

 flammation of the upper respiratory 

 passages as well as after other infec- 

 tious diseases, in diabetes, chronic ane- 

 mias, chronic metal and other poison- 

 ing, and after surgical interventions. 

 Animal experiments demonstrated that 

 they are induced by protein and vitamin 

 A deficiency, and by fasting in general 

 (Acheson and Maclntyre 1958). During 

 long-time follow-up of children it was 

 found that the number of Harris" lines 

 does not necessarily equal the number 

 of illness periods (Gindhart 1969). In 

 some cases the lines appeared even 

 without any proved cause. 



In clinical practice, Harris' lines in 

 adults are not considered as clinically 

 important and usually they are not men- 

 tioned in interpretation of radiological 

 pictures. In recent years a new interest 

 in Harris' lines was raised by studies in 

 which the authors tried to use them for 

 paleopathological purposes (Allison et 

 al. 1974). Among studies which dealt 



?y7* 



Figure 1 . Prominent Harris' lines at a 

 distance of 45 mm from distal articular 

 surface of tibia. Photograph of section 

 of bone. 



92 



Zagreb Paieopathology Symp. 1 988 



