Bone changes in an adult from a medieval mountain population in north-western Spain (12th-13th century): a possible case of leprosy 1Area of Physical Anthropology, Department of Biodiversity and Environmental Management University of León, 24071 León, Spain 1,2 2,3 2* 2CIAS - Research Centre for Anthropology and Health, Department of Life Sciences Laura González-Garrido , Célia Lopes , Sofia N. Wasterlain University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal 3Department of Biology, School of Science and Technology, University of Évora, 7002-554 Évora, Portugal *E-mail:
[email protected] (S.N. Wasterlain) INTRODUCTION DISCUSSION The lesions identified in a skeleton of an adult male (COR XVIII), Differential diagnosis recovered from the medieval necropolis of Barrejo, León (Spain), are presented and discussed. Differential diagnosis of the rhinomaxillary lesions must take into consideration several pathological conditions, namely fungal and oral The possible diagnosis of leprosy opens a debate on its diagnosis in infections, maxillary sinusitis, leishmaniosis, neoplastic disease, medieval populations in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). treponematoses and leprosy (Ortner, 2003). In fungal infections the formation of new bone is uncommon, causing only unilateral perforations of the bone (Robbins et al., MATERIAL AND METHODS 2009), which is not the case for this individual. Oral infections and rhinomaxillary sinusitis can cause Necropolis: A total of 26 individuals have been recovered: 17 males a b inflammation and destruction of the alveolar region of the maxilla and 7 females (20-50 years-old) and 2 non-adults (5-8 years-old). Figure 3. Resorption of the anterior nasal spine and osteolysis of the (Robbins et al., 2009), which was not observed in the present case.