A possible case of Gigantism and/or Acromegaly in a 15th-17th century woman from Đurine ćelije, Serbia

Authors

  • Maja Miljević-Đajić

Keywords:

gigantism/acromegaly, overgrowth syndrome, ndocrine disorder, post-Medieval period, Serbia

Abstract

Endocrine disorders during growth and development that occur due to the secretion of excessive growth hormones are very rare in archaeological and modern populations. The human skeletal remains analyzed in this paper belong to an unusually tall woman, approximately 35-40 years of age, buried at the Đurine ćelije site (15th-17th century) in Serbia, who may have suffered from overgrowth syndrome. Individuals with this condition have an unusually tall stature and accompanying pathological changes related to organ systems and joint diseases. The aim of this paper is to show how the aforementioned disorder affected the health status of an individual (grave No. 7a) and the performance of daily activities, but also the attitude of the community towards deformities during life and after death. Differential diagnosis was performed since other diseases tend to lead to similar skeletal changes. During the analysis, changes in growth were noticed, and her stature was determined to be 186.42 cm. Compared to the documented stature of post-medieval population from this period, the skeletal remains show a significant deviation from the average, especially when it comes to female individuals. Other pathological changes observed in this woman are osteoarthritis, spondyloarthropathy, and periosteal new bone formation.

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Published

2021-12-20 — Updated on 2021-12-20

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Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2021): Journal of Bioanthropology

Section

Research paper

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