The Skinner Burial of Ontario, Canada, and the Question of Paget's Disease in the Americas

Abstract

Purpose: To examine a possible case of Paget's disease of bone (PDB) in an Indigenous pre-contact male from Canada, individual D of the Skinner site in Ontario.

Methods: Radiographs, CT scan and histological analysis.

Results: The histological analysis revealed the mosaic pattern that characterizes PDB. CT scans show advanced sclerosis of the cranium and a diminished diplӧe with osteolytic lesions.

Conclusions: The pathological features that have been identified are collectively characteristic of PDB.

Significance: The Skinner case advances our understanding of the global history and distribution of PDB.

Limitations of study: Only two New World cases have been identified and neither has been studied in sufficient detail.

Suggestions for future research: The older individuals in precolonial New World skeletal series should be given CT scans, which are non-intrusive, to be followed by histological and genetic analyses when indicated.

Keywords: Canada; Late Woodland; metabolic bone disorder; osteosclerosis; paleopathology.