Rheumatoid erosive arthropathy in macerated bone specimens 'IIS 



Table 3. Summary of published studies describing an erosive arthropathy seen in dry 

 archeological bone 



Author 



Site 



Age of 

 specimens 



Material 



Rogers et al. 1981 Britain A.D. 1200 



Ortner and 

 Utermohle 1981 

 Klepinger 1979 



Thould and 

 Thould 1983 



3 of 400 skeletons: 3 males with erosive disease, 



possible gout (1), psoriatic arthritis (1), 



rheumatoid arthritis 

 Alaska >A.D. 1200 1 female skeleton age 30-35, polyarticular 



erosive disease 

 Sicily 330-210 B.C. 1 male skeleton with distribution of abnormalities 



suggesting rheumatoid arthritis 

 Britain A.D. 0-400 2 of 416 skeletons: 1 male, 1 female with erosions 



involving wrist and metacarpals 



dyloarthropathies have yet to be studied 

 in this manner. In addition, morpho- 

 logic surveys of patients with early and 

 presumably less severely disabling 

 rheumatoid arthritis might reveal ero- 

 sive features that would be helpful in 

 establishing the existence of erosive ar- 

 thropathies in paleopathologic skeletal 

 material. 



Finally, although the word "erosion" 

 implies a focal defect in bone and/or 

 cartilage, as seen radiographically, this 

 type of focal change was not a feature 

 of the specimens examined in this 

 study. Rather, the rheumatoid erosions 

 we observed were more extensive and 

 included the sum of the anatomical de- 

 fects noted in the articular surface, 

 chondro-osseous junction, and para- 

 articular bone. It appears that a multi- 

 discipline approach that includes the 

 distribution of joint lesions, radio- 

 graphic evaluation of affected joints, 

 and a careful morphologic survey of the 



joints using both light as well as scan- 

 ning electron microscopy may be nec- 

 essary to interrelate findings on modem 

 patients with classic rheumatoid arthri- 

 tis to joint lesions present in ancient 

 skeletal remains. 



Literature cited 



Duncan, H., J. Jundt. J. Riddle, W. Pitch- 

 ford, andT. Christopherson. 1987. Tibial 

 Subchondral Plate — A Scanning Elec- 

 tron Microscope Study. Journal of Bone 

 and Joint Surgery: 69A: 1 2 1 2- 1 220. 



Klepinger, L. 1979. Paleopathologic Evi- 

 dence for the Evolution of Rheumatoid 

 Arthritis. American Journal of Physical 

 Anthropology. 50: 1 19-122. 



Leisen, J., H. Duncan, J. Riddle, and W. 

 Pitchford. 1988. The Erosive Front: A 

 Topographic Study of the Junction be- 

 tween Pannus and the Subchondral Plate 

 in the Macerated Rheumatoid Metacarpal 

 Head. Journal of Rheumatology. 15:17- 



Mitchell, DM., and J.R Fries. 1982. An 

 Analysis of the American Rheumatism 

 Association Criteria for Rheumatoid Ar- 

 thritis. Arthritis and Rheumatism. 25: 

 481-487. 



Ortner, D.J., and C.J. Utermohle. 1981. 

 Polyarticular Inflammatory Arthritis in a 

 Pre-Columbian Skeleton from Kodiak Is- 

 land, Alaska, USA. American Journal of 

 Physical Anthropology. 56:23-3 1 . 



Resnick, D.. andG. Niwayama. 1981. Di- 

 agnosis of Bone and Joint Disorders, vol . 

 2. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders. 



Rogers, J., 1. Watt, and P. Dieppe. 1981. 

 Arthritis in Saxon and Medieval Skel- 

 etons. British Medical Journal. 283: 

 1668-1670. 



Ropes, M.W., G.A. Bennett. S. Cobb, R. 

 Jacox, and R.A. Jesspar. 1958. Revision 

 of Diagnostic Criteria for Rheumatoid 

 Arthritis. Bulletin of Rheumatic Dis- 

 eases. 9:175-176. 



Thould, A.K., and B.T Thould. 1983. Ar- 

 thritis in Roman Britain. British Medical 

 Journal, 287:1909-1911 



Zagreb Paleopathology Symp. 1988 



