Palaeopathological diagnosis after 2500 years. The case of Imakhetkherresnet, sister of priest Iufaa.
The aim of palaeopathological studies has been traditionally the determination of a diagnosis of any found pathological change. If based merely on skeletal evidence, most of them proved to be only tentative. Our case of the mature female Imakhetkherresnet, sister of the lector-priest Iufaa, having preserved scraps of soft tissue, enabled a precise diagnosis. Her skeletized mummy was discovered in Iufaa's unmolested tomb dating late 26th Dynasty at Abusir (Egypt) by the Czech Institute of Egyptology in 2001. A large smooth-walled cavity moulded by pressure of a relatively hard, globular and lobulated tissue mass was found inside the sacrum, growing in hour-glass shape outside it. By macroscopic and radiographic examination its diagnosis was suggested, while by histological analysis with histochemical tests and comparison with a recent case, the origin of the hollow could be "clinically" determined. It was caused by a benign tumour, originating in the nerve sheath, called neurilemmoma (schwannoma, neurinoma). This kind of tumour, occurring in the sacrum relatively rarely, was never before described in the palaeopathological literature.
Strouhal
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Charles University in Prague, First Faculty of Medicine, Institute for the History of Medicine and Foreign Languages, Prague, Czech Republic. eugen.strouhal@lf1.cuni.cz
Nĕmecková
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A
D000076144:Egypt, Ancient; D005260:Female; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D009106:Mummies / Q000473:pathology*; D009442:Neurilemmoma / Q000266:history*; D010164:Paleopathology; D012447:Sacrum / Q000473:pathology; D013125:Spinal Neoplasms / Q000266:history*