title: No rheumatoid arthritis in ancient Egypt: a reappraisal.
abstract: Antiquity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remains controversial, and its origins in Americas or in the Old World are disputed. Proponents of the latter frequently refer to RA in ancient Egypt, but validity of those claims has never been examined. Review of all reported RA cases from ancient Egypt revealed that none of them represent real RA, instead being either examples of changing naming conventions or of imprecise diagnostic criteria. Most cases represented osteoarthritis or spondyloarthropathies. Also review of preserved ancient Egyptian medical writings revealed many descriptions of musculoskeletal disorders, but none of them resembled RA. This suggests that RA was absent in ancient Egypt and supports the hypothesis of the New World origin of RA and its subsequent global spread in the last several centuries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Box 480, 405-30, Gothenburg, Sweden. jakub.kwiecinski@rheuma.gu.se.|Department of Microbiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. jakub.kwiecinski@rheuma.gu.se.
authors.forename: Jakub
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kwiecinski
authors.affiliation: Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.|Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstown, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Bruce M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Rothschild
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000266:history*; D000076144:Egypt, Ancient; D005260:Female; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007596:Joints / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010164:Paleopathology / Q000266:history; D013782:Textbooks as Topic / Q000266:history
keywords: Ancient Egypt; History; Osteoarthritis; Rheumatoid arthritis; Spondyloarthropathy