Thesis Chapters by Cinzia Roggio
Conference Presentations by Cinzia Roggio
Pathologica, 2022
The medieval deserted village of Geridu, near Sorso, in the North of Sardinia, is mentioned... more The medieval deserted village of Geridu, near Sorso, in the North of Sardinia, is mentioned in historical sources since the XIIth century and reached its maxi-mum development during the XIVth century, when its population was about 1500 people. The village had been deserted before 1427, as the sources suggest, for several reasons, such as fiscal pressure, wars and pestilence.The village’s cemetery, near the church of Saint An-drews, was excavated in 1997-1998. The archae-ologists dug 26 burials and discovered an hypogeic structure, most ancient, used in XIVth century as an ossuary. More than 90 cm of human remains were found, in-cluding some portions of skeletons in anatomical con-nection in the most ancient part of the ossuary. Therefore, archaeologists hypothesized the use of the structure also as a primary burial place for some individuals, especially for non-adults. In fact, the high presence of all subadult bones, found in the most an-cient part of the ossuary, can suggest that some chil-dren were buried directly in the ossuary. Based on pottery found in ossuary’s obliteration the structure was closed definitively in the XVth century.The aim of the anthropological study was to determine the bioarchaeology of Geridu from the commingled bones from the ossuary.The osteological study focused on adults remains from the most recent part of the ossuary, separated from the first period of use by a layer of lime, and on several portion in connection found in the US 2812, the most ancient stratigraphical unit. Therefore, 180 commingled bones and 36 parts of in-
PROCEEDINGS OF THE VI NATIONAL MEETING OF THE ITALIAN GROUP OF PALEOPATHOLOGY (GIPALEO267dividuals in connection has been analyzed.The paleopathological aspect seems to be very inter-esting; it confirms the results of individuals’ study from the cemetery burials, in addition to providing new data. The sample contained two cases of DISH, Diffuse Id-iopatic Skeletal Hyperostosis, already found in Geridu, several bones affected by infectious diseases, such as a femur with pathological traces of osteomyelitis and a tibia with a probable case of Sclerosing osteomyelitis of Garré.Furthermore, a probable case of Osteosarcoma has been found, is an adult femur with extensive lithic le-sions that have completely altered the proximal bone profile.For a better diagnosis the bones with traces of patho-logical lesions were analyzed with XR and Spiral CT scan by a team of Radiology from the University Hos-pital (A.O.U.) of Sassari. Despite the impossibility to complete a differential analysis, due to the absence of the rest of the skel-eton, the hypotheses advanced seem to be confirmed by a CT scan.The study, even if incomplete, shows that important information can also be obtained from contexts such as ossuaries, which give a general picture on the state of health of past populations.
Conference: International Conference on the Evolution and Paleoepidemiology of TuberculosisAt: Szeged, Hungary, 2022
Considering that before antibiotics and vaccination the course of tuberculosis (TB) depended most... more Considering that before antibiotics and vaccination the course of tuberculosis (TB) depended mostly of the immune response of the patient, this study tested the hypothesis that mortality profile remained similar in the transition between 19th and 20th centuries. To fulfil this aim, the records of the Coimbra Municipal Cemetery of Conchada were studied. At the time, this non-industrialized city was the fifth most populated in Portugal. Biographic information - sex, age at death, type of TB, and month, and year of death - of the individuals born in the city and with TB as cause of death were analysed using SPSS. The years of death were grouped in three periods: 1861-1870 (n=124, 22.5%), 1871-1880 (n=234, 42.4%), and 1910-1914 (n=194, 35.1%). These numbers shown an increase of mortality by tuberculosis (last period comprises only 5 years). A total of 552 individuals, 242 females (43.8%) and 310 males (56.2%) died of TB, with statistically significant difference between sexes (p<0.05). The mean age at death (ranging from 11 days to 86 years) decreased over time, respectively 51.8, 53.1 and 35.8 years old for individuals older than 20. Deaths by pulmonary TB (n=38 in 1861-1870, n=115 in 1910-1914) and meningeal TB (n=0 in 1861-1870, n=48 in 1910-1914) increased over time while scrofula decreased considerably (n=23 in 1861-1870, n=3 in 1910-1914). These trends could be biased by the improvement of TB diagnosis after the identification of the Koch’s bacillus in 1882 and the reduction of the use of the general denomination tuberculosis (n=58 in 1861-1870, n=11 in 1910-1914) as cause of death. Interestingly, in paleopathology, the identification of TB is mainly based on bone and joint type, however only a 12 years-old male (0.2%, 1/552) died with a white tumour in the knee. Seasonality of mortality was observed in infants (0-3 years-old), 50.5% (48/95) of the individuals died between July-October. These results showed that death by tuberculosis increased in the period under analysis which may be a consequence of population growth and/or deterioration of the living conditions and/or changes in bacterial virulence and/or host immune system.
Papers by Cinzia Roggio
Tuberculosis
Considering that before antibiotics and vaccination the course of tuberculosis (TB) depended most... more Considering that before antibiotics and vaccination the course of tuberculosis (TB) depended mostly of the immune response of the patient, this study tested the hypothesis that mortality profile remained similar in the transition between 19th and 20th centuries. To fulfil this aim, the records of the Coimbra Municipal Cemetery of Conchada were studied. At the time, this non-industrialized city was the fifth most populated in Portugal. Biographic information - sex, age at death, type of TB, and month, and year of death - of the individuals born in the city and with TB as cause of death were analysed using SPSS. The years of death were grouped in three periods: 1861-1870 (n=124, 22.5%), 1871-1880 (n=234, 42.4%), and 1910-1914 (n=194, 35.1%). These numbers shown an increase of mortality by tuberculosis (last period comprises only 5 years). A total of 552 individuals, 242 females (43.8%) and 310 males (56.2%) died of TB, with statistically significant difference between sexes (p&lt;0.05). The mean age at death (ranging from 11 days to 86 years) decreased over time, respectively 51.8, 53.1 and 35.8 years old for individuals older than 20. Deaths by pulmonary TB (n=38 in 1861-1870, n=115 in 1910-1914) and meningeal TB (n=0 in 1861-1870, n=48 in 1910-1914) increased over time while scrofula decreased considerably (n=23 in 1861-1870, n=3 in 1910-1914). These trends could be biased by the improvement of TB diagnosis after the identification of the Koch’s bacillus in 1882 and the reduction of the use of the general denomination tuberculosis (n=58 in 1861-1870, n=11 in 1910-1914) as cause of death. Interestingly, in paleopathology, the identification of TB is mainly based on bone and joint type, however only a 12 years-old male (0.2%, 1/552) died with a white tumour in the knee. Seasonality of mortality was observed in infants (0-3 years-old), 50.5% (48/95) of the individuals died between July-October. These results showed that death by tuberculosis increased in the period under analysis which may be a consequence of population growth and/or deterioration of the living conditions and/or changes in bacterial virulence and/or host immune system.
La Revue de Médecine Légale
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Thesis Chapters by Cinzia Roggio
Conference Presentations by Cinzia Roggio
PROCEEDINGS OF THE VI NATIONAL MEETING OF THE ITALIAN GROUP OF PALEOPATHOLOGY (GIPALEO267dividuals in connection has been analyzed.The paleopathological aspect seems to be very inter-esting; it confirms the results of individuals’ study from the cemetery burials, in addition to providing new data. The sample contained two cases of DISH, Diffuse Id-iopatic Skeletal Hyperostosis, already found in Geridu, several bones affected by infectious diseases, such as a femur with pathological traces of osteomyelitis and a tibia with a probable case of Sclerosing osteomyelitis of Garré.Furthermore, a probable case of Osteosarcoma has been found, is an adult femur with extensive lithic le-sions that have completely altered the proximal bone profile.For a better diagnosis the bones with traces of patho-logical lesions were analyzed with XR and Spiral CT scan by a team of Radiology from the University Hos-pital (A.O.U.) of Sassari. Despite the impossibility to complete a differential analysis, due to the absence of the rest of the skel-eton, the hypotheses advanced seem to be confirmed by a CT scan.The study, even if incomplete, shows that important information can also be obtained from contexts such as ossuaries, which give a general picture on the state of health of past populations.
Papers by Cinzia Roggio
PROCEEDINGS OF THE VI NATIONAL MEETING OF THE ITALIAN GROUP OF PALEOPATHOLOGY (GIPALEO267dividuals in connection has been analyzed.The paleopathological aspect seems to be very inter-esting; it confirms the results of individuals’ study from the cemetery burials, in addition to providing new data. The sample contained two cases of DISH, Diffuse Id-iopatic Skeletal Hyperostosis, already found in Geridu, several bones affected by infectious diseases, such as a femur with pathological traces of osteomyelitis and a tibia with a probable case of Sclerosing osteomyelitis of Garré.Furthermore, a probable case of Osteosarcoma has been found, is an adult femur with extensive lithic le-sions that have completely altered the proximal bone profile.For a better diagnosis the bones with traces of patho-logical lesions were analyzed with XR and Spiral CT scan by a team of Radiology from the University Hos-pital (A.O.U.) of Sassari. Despite the impossibility to complete a differential analysis, due to the absence of the rest of the skel-eton, the hypotheses advanced seem to be confirmed by a CT scan.The study, even if incomplete, shows that important information can also be obtained from contexts such as ossuaries, which give a general picture on the state of health of past populations.