Charlier Philippe, Costea Georgică, Huynh-Charlier Isabelle, Brun Luc, de la Grandmaison Geoffroy Lorin
Department of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, University Hospital R. Poincaré, Garches, France.
Leg Med (Tokyo). 2012 Mar;14(2):101-4. doi: 10.1016/j.legalmed.2011.12.006. Epub 2012 Jan 30.
The fine macroscopic observation of a young adult female skeleton recovered from a Roman graveyard in Romania revealed distinctive flattening of the vertebra related to a right-sided aorta. Associated bone anomalies may be related to a Kartagener syndrome. This case highlights the fact that visceral anomalies may be diagnosed even on skeletal remains. Such lesions could be useful for osteo-archaeologists, of course, but also for forensic anthropologist investigators dealing with skeletonized remains (for example during the identification process of a dead body, through comparison with known medical data for missing people). More, hypotheses about cause and/or manner of death may be given, and a possibility of genetic confirmation exists.
