Yves Lignereux
Natural History Museum & National Veterinary College, France
Title: Vertebral ankylosing hyperostoses in the horse in archeological contexts: differential diagnosis and comparative nosological review
Biography
Biography: Yves Lignereux
Abstract
In the veterinary clinical literature, two basic forms of vertebral fusions have been described: spondyl(arthr)itis/-osisankylopoetica (SPA) and spondylitis/-osischronicadeformans (SPD)(SILBERSIEPE and BERGE, 1958; MORGAN, 1967);advances in clinics have added DISH as a third form, principally in dogs (WOODARDet al., 1985). Inarcheo(zoo)logical contexts, SPA refers to bony bridges connecting synovial joints, while SPD refers to bony bridges between adjacent vertebral bodies(BARTOSIEWICZ, 2013). In human clinics and paleopathology, SPA, SPD and DISH are well-defined entities (e.g. ADLER, 2000; ORTNER, 2003; PAJA, 2012), but with lesional expressions specifically different from animals’. SPA and DISH both are inflammatory, productive, enthesopathic/periosteal connective tissue conditions; SPD is degenerative, erosive, and osteo-/syndesmophytic. SPA is characterized by dorsal and lateral fusions and somatic false-ankyloses; SPD is signaled by spinouspseudarthroses, small-joint osteoarthritis, and disk disease. In all spondyloarthropathies, the ventral longitudinal ligament is highly reactive. Ancient domesticated horses often show lesions of vertebral ankylosing hyperostosis diagnosed as SPA when affecting vertebral bodies and SPD when affecting dorsal arches and their processes. But both processes can interact in a mechanical action-reaction spiral, so that they often coexist on the same vertebra(LEVINEet al., 2005), even questioning the very meaning of differentiating two entities(THILLAUD, pers. com.).Thus, the main supposed etiology is mechanical stress and the causes are looked for in the way horses were handled and utilized. Discussing published cases gives the opportunity to a comparative and critical review of spinal hyperostosing and ankylosing diseases in horse and man.