Evaluation of frailty in geriatric patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation after cardiac procedure: results of a prospective, cross-sectional study.

Background: Frailty is an indicator of a decline in quality of life and functional capacity in cardiac rehabilitation (CR) patients. Currently, there is no standardized assessment tool for frailty used in CR. The aim of this study was to determine if the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is feasible for assessing frailty in CR.

Is the promontory a promising site to diagnose otitis media in paleopathology? A search for evidence.

Objective: The promontory of the middle ear was recently suggested to be an appropriate site for diagnosing otitis media (OM) in archaeological bones by endoscopic inspection. The present study scrutinized the underlying assumption that a bulgy, irregular promontorial surface represents a pathological condition.

Materials: We compared an allegedly healthy individual and an allegedly diseased individual in skeletal remains of two human individuals from the early Medieval period in Germany.

Bilateral dislocation of the hip joint and associated pathological changes in the ossa coxae and femora of a European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus).

We describe a bilateral craniodorsal dislocation of the hip joint in a free-ranging young roe buck and the associated pathological changes in the ossa coxae and femora of the animal. The highly symmetrical dislocation, which is considered to have developed secondary to hip dysplasia, caused the formation of two false acetabula that each consist of several, partially fused bone portions. The femora exhibit symmetrical outgrowths that extend from the greater trochanter along the intertrochanteric crest to the lesser trochanter.

Canine dimensions for estimation of sex in adult and non-adult individuals with external validation by aDNA.

Using discriminant functions obtained from canine dimensions for sex estimation in human skeletons has frequently been proposed as a promising approach within assemblages, even when used in non-adult individuals. However, applicability of this method to adult and non-adult individuals from other assemblages was rarely investigated, probably due to frequently observed inter-population differences in tooth dimensions. In the present study, discriminant functions obtained for permanent canine dimensions at the cemento-enamel junction in a previous study of the early medieval assemblage from Greding, were applied to individuals from a late medieval Jewish cemetery at Erfurt, Germany.

Histomorphological study on hypocellularity in mastoid processes from archaeological human skeletons.

Objective: To evaluate processes causing two types of mastoid hypocellularity (Type 1 and Type 3), and to provide histomorphological criteria for a differential diagnosis in archaeological human bone.

Materials And Methods: Eight human crania from the early medieval cemetery in Dirmstein (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany) displaying secondary obliteration of mastoid air cells were analyzed using light-microscopy and backscattered electron imaging.

Results: In Type 1 hypocellularity, obliteration starts in the non-pneumatized portion of the mastoid process and extends into the pneumatized portion.

Did the assumed partial skeleton LB1 (aka ) really have long feet?

About 100 hominin bones were found during excavations at the Liang Bua cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia. More than 60 of them were assigned to the partial skeleton LB1 which was designated as the holotype of a new species, . Analyses of skeletal proportions of LB1 led to the conclusion that its foot was exceptionally long relative to femur and tibia, respectively.

Secondary hypertrophic osteoarthropathy in a male from the Early Medieval settlement of Lauchheim, Germany.

Hypertrophic osteoarthropathy (HOA) is rarely diagnosed in archaeological human skeletons. Here, we report on the well-preserved skeleton of a middle-adult man from the early Medieval settlement site of Lauchheim (Germany) that exhibits pronounced multi-layered shell-like periosteal new bone formation in a bilaterally symmetric fashion on the long bones, the skeletal elements of the pelvis and those of the pectoral girdle. In addition, the two distal phalanges recovered show signs of osteoclastic resorption on their distal tuberosities.

Multiple osteochondromas of the antlers and cranium in a free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus).

This paper reports a case of multiple osteochondromas affecting the antlers and the left zygomatic bone of a free-ranging adult white-tailed buck (Odocoileus virginianus) from Georgia, USA. Along with a few postcranial bones, the antlered cranium of the individual was found in a severely weathered condition and devoid of any soft tissue. The antlers exhibited five pedunculated exostoses that were composed of cancellous bone and, in their peripheral portions, also mineralized cartilage.

Odontometric sex estimation in humans using measurements on permanent canines. A comparison of an early Neolithic and an early medieval assemblage from Germany.

This study analyzed whether cervical canine dimensions measured at the enamel-cement junction can provide a basis for sex estimation in human skeletal remains and whether discriminant functions developed for one assemblage can be successfully applied also to others. Cervical canine dimensions were recorded for an Early Neolithic (Linear Pottery Culture) and an early medieval skeletal assemblage from Germany. Only individuals in whom sex estimation based on standard diagnostic criteria could be performed with a high degree of certainty were included.

Flint arrowhead embedded in a human humerus from the Bronze Age site in the Tollense valley, Germany - A high-resolution micro-CT study to distinguish antemortem from perimortem projectile trauma to bone.

The Bronze Age site in the Tollense valley, Germany, has yielded thousands of human and animal bones and a number of archaeological artifacts. Several of the human bones exhibit blunt and sharp force lesions, and the assemblage has been interpreted as representing victims of a large scale conflict. One of the earliest finds is a human humerus with an embedded flint arrowhead.

Diagnosis of stapedial footplate fixation in archaeological human remains.

This study analyses changes in the region of the oval window suggestive of stapedial footplate fixation in archaeological human skeletal remains. We endoscopically investigated 621 temporal bones of 385 individuals from five medieval sites in Germany to identify fixations of the stapedial footplate. For differential diagnosis, four cases suspicious of representing stapes fixation or remnants of the fixed footplate were further investigated using microscopic techniques (brightfield and darkfield imaging, phase-contrast microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, CLSM, SEM-BSE imaging), and EDX-analysis, either alone or in combination.

The structure of pedicle and hard antler bone in the European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus): a light microscope and backscattered electron imaging study.

Deer antlers are deciduous bony structures that develop from permanent frontal outgrowths, the pedicles. While growth and bone architecture of antlers have been studied in greater detail, information on pedicle formation and structure is scarce. The present study provides information on the structure of pedicle and hard antler bone in the European roe deer.

Healed fracture of the tibia in a bison (Bison menneri) from the late Early Pleistocene site of Untermassfeld (Thuringia, Germany).

We present the case of a healed tibial fracture in a fossil bison (Bison menneri) from the late Early Pleistocene site of Untermassfeld. The tibia belonged to a large bull and was found as part of an articulated unit, including the lateral malleolus and the elements of the tarsus. A comminuted fracture had occurred in the midshaft region, with considerable overriding of the two main fragments.

How reproducibly can human ear ossicles be measured? A study of inter-observer error.

Ear ossicles have thus far received little attention in biological anthropology. For the use of these bones as a source of biological information, it is important to know how reproducibly they can be measured. We determined inter-observer errors for measurements recorded by two observers on mallei (N = 119) and incudes (N = 124) obtained from human skeletons recovered from an early medieval cemetery in southern Germany.

Differential diagnosis of mastoid hypocellularity in human skeletal remains.

Mastoid hypocellularity is frequently used as an indicator of chronic otits media in paleopathological investigations. The condition can be caused by a poor development of air cells during infancy and early childhood (primary hypocellularity) or by obliteration of air cells with bone during later life (secondary hypocellularity). We performed a macroscopic, radiographic, and microscopic study of pneumatization patterns in 151 mastoid processes of individuals from an early-medieval cemetery in Germany, with emphasis on the architecture of the nonpneumatized portion of hypocellular mastoid processes.

Mastoiditis--paleopathological evidence of a rarely reported disease.

Since antibiotics have become available, mastoiditis has become a rare disease in modern Western societies. However, it is still common in developing countries. It can be hypothesized that in earlier historical and prehistoric times, mastoiditis must have posed a serious threat to people's lives, and that the prevalence of this disease is probably underrepresented in the paleopathological literature.

[Buried Pleistocene human remains of Weissenthurm, Mayen-Koblenz district: new and old information]].

The landscape at central Rhine and Mosel is one of the most famous archaeological sites in middle Europe. A layer of pumicetufa from the eruption of the lake Laacher volcano 13,000 years B.P.

[Multiple pathology in a Merowingian individual of a graveyard near Insheim (Rhineland-Pfalz)].

The following case report describes in detail a 57 years old (+/- 5 years) male individual from a Franconian graveyard in Insheim, Province of Rhineland-Palatinate, dating to between the 6th and 7th century A.D. The individual displays a number of unusual pathologies.