Inherited knee disorders in the Medici family.
Reconstructing a medical condition which was existent centuries ago is limited by the lack of contemporaneous evidence-based descriptions in the accounts given by physicians and other observers. Despite these limitations modern paleopathological evidence, supplemented by techniques of historical investigation, have led to the conclusion that males in the Medici family typically suffered from a complex clinical entity with a triple pathology of stenotic spinal ankylosis, recurrent peripheral joint disease and erythematous skin disease; the Medici Syndrome. Examination of the knee joint is illustrative of recurrent joint disease both in the primary and secondary lines of the family. Pictorial and sculptural representations, if used cautiously, can assist in this retrospective process. The six cases presented here illustrate the involvement of the knee joint where the joint destruction ultimately led to an ankylosis.
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Italy.
Donatella
D
Lippi
Department of Rheumatology, Denothe Centre, University of Florence, Italy.
Marco
M
Matucci-Cerinic
School of Humanities, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.
W R
WR
Alburyc
School of Humanities, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; School of Humanities, University of New England, Armidale, Australia. Electronic address: gmweisz1@aol.com.
George M
GM
Weisz
D004890:Erythema / Q000266:history*; D005197:Famous Persons; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D007592:Joint Diseases / Q000266:history* / Q000473:pathology; D009999:Ossification, Heterotopic / Q000266:history / Q000473:pathology; D010781:Photography; D012613:Sculpture / Q000266:history; D013130:Spinal Stenosis / Q000266:history* / Q000473:pathology; D013167:Spondylitis, Ankylosing / Q000266:history* / Q000473:pathology; D013577:Syndrome
Joints; Medici; Paleopathology; Skin; Spine