What’s that big thing on your head? Diagnosis of a large frontoparietal lesion on an Eastern Zhou skull from Henan, China

Publication date: September 2019Source: International Journal of Paleopathology, Volume 26Author(s): Kate Pechenkina, Wenquan Fan, Xiaodong LuoAbstractWe carried out a differential diagnosis of a large frontoparietal lesion on a human skull from a Late Bronze Age archaeological site located on the Central Plain of China, dating to between 771 and 476 BC. The head of this individual was covered in cinnabar, a mercury-based pigment that later was used for medicinal purposes in China. The lesion was well-circumscribed and involved the outer and inner tables of the skull, slight diploë thickening, and coarsening of bone trabeculae with expansion of intertrabecular spaces. We show that the observed changes are most consistent with cavernous hemangioma of the skull, a benign vascular malformation that preferentially affects older adults. Hemangiomas are often neglected in the paleopathological literature because of their benign nature - they tend to be asymptomatic and do not affect quality of life to a significant degree. Nevertheless, they produce characteristic lesions that can be confused with several other conditions with unrelated etiologies, including congenital hemoglabinopathies, traumas, malignant or benign neoplasms, and Paget’s disease. We outline the diagnostic criteria that distinguish cavernous hemangioma from other conditions affecting the skull.中文摘要在中国中原地区公元前771年到476年间的一个青铜时代晚期遗址中，笔者在一例人...
Source: International Journal of Paleopathology - Category: Pathology Source Type: research