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- Title
A comprehensive review of the history of Pott's disease: an osteological perspective.
- Authors
Papa, Veronica; Varotto, Elena; del Pizzo, Silvio; Troisi, Salvatore; Di Ciaccio, Fabiana; Maria Galassi, Francesco
- Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) is a communicable pulmonary disease that still nowadays remains one a major cause of ill health, ranking one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide. Also, it is the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent rating above HIV/AIDS. According to the World Health Organization, almost 10 million people fell ill with TB in 2019, with an estimated 1.4 million deaths globally. Unfortunately, the number of infected people decreases slowly every year as well as current therapeutical strategies are showing their limitations due to multi-drug resistant strains. Totally effective vaccines are still not available. Moreover, the origin and the evolution of TB is still not fully understood. Therefore, understanding its origins and history is a relevant issue to assess this medical problem from an evolutionary perspective. The principal causative organism of TB is Mycobacterium tuberculosis, an obligate pathogen that is a member of the M. tuberculosis complex (MTBC) which is mainly spread by air. The disease typically affects the lungs but can also affect other sites (extrapulmonary TB). Of those, the most common and characteristic are the skeletal changes affecting the spine, such as Pott's disease. The bacilli locate in the anterior portion of the vertebral bodies (mainly at the thoracic tract). Afterward, these lesions can cause vertebral collapse (from one to three in most cases) and fusion of the vertebrae themselves producing the curved spine known as Pott's disease. This condition which results from the exaggeration of the physiological kyphosis of the thoracic spine was named after Sir Percivall Pott (1714-1788) who, as a surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, first described it in 1779. Moreover, Pott's disease might be identified studying the morphology and shape of the gibbus in which there is loss of function in the lower limbs due to damage to the spinal column. Therefore, studying the skeletal remains dating back thousands of years could be very important in order to better understand the evolution and the mechanism of infection of TB. Here, we offer a comprehensive review of the history of Pott disease as well a full contextualization of Pott's disease in the ancient times.
- Subjects
MYCOBACTERIUM tuberculosis; WORLD Health Organization; THORACIC vertebrae; COMMUNICABLE diseases; SPINE; LUNG diseases; VACCINE effectiveness; LUNGS; VERTEBRAE
- Publication
Italian Journal of Anatomy & Embryology / Archivio Italiano di Anatomia Ed Embriologia, 2021, Vol 125, p70
- ISSN
1122-6714
- Publication type
Article