Porotic hyperostosis in Indians’ and Mulattos’ skulls from Southeastern Brazil: correlation between calvarium and orbital lesions.

Abstract

The research of hyperosteosis on indians and mullatos’ skulls from Southeast Brazil made by the authors correlates calvarium and orbital lesions. This work is added to the various studies published by anatomists, physical anthropologists, physicians and paleopathologists that consider the porotic hyperostosis as a biologic stress marker, deriving from anaemias of different origins. The macroscopic analysis of orbital and calvarim porotic hyperostosis was made within a sample of 409 individuals (141 indians and 268 mulattos), distributed in groups of age and sex. The correlation between the lesions in both groups, racially, culturally and temporally distincts, was based on demographic and anthropological perspectives. In the formation of this pathology, it was also considered the complexity of interaction between biossocial and environmental factors.