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The antiquity of hydrocephalus: the first full palaeo-neuropathological description

  • History of Neurology
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Abstract

The Pathology Museum of the University of Florence houses a rich collection of anatomical specimens and over a hundred waxworks portraying pathological conditions occurring in the nineteenth century, when the museum was established. Clinical and autopsy findings of these cases can still be retrieved from the original museum catalogue, offering a rare opportunity for retrospective palaeo-pathological diagnostics. We present a historical case of severe hydrocephalus backed by modern-day anthropological, radiological and molecular analyses conducted on the skeleton of an 18-month-old male infant deceased in 1831. Luigi Calamai (1796–1851), a wax craftsman of La Specola workshop in Florence, was commissioned to create a life-sized wax model of the child’s head, neck and upper thorax. This artwork allows us to appreciate the cranial and facial alterations determined by 30 lb of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) accumulated within the cerebral ventricular system. Based on the autopsy report, gross malformations of the neural tube, tumours and haemorrhage could be excluded. A molecular approach proved helpful in confirming sex. We present this case as the so-far most compelling case of hydrocephalus in palaeo-pathological research.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze for their support of the Pathology Museum of the University of Florence. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Ugo Funaioli for his valuable work in ensuring housing and curation of the skeletal specimen collected. Francesco M. Galassi thanks the Mäxi Foundation (Zurich, Switzerland) for supporting his research.

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Author notes

  1. Raffaella Santi and Piera Rizzolo contributed equally to the manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pathological Anatomy, Department of Surgery and Translational Medicine, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla 3, 50134, Florence, Italy

    Raffaella Santi & Gabriella Nesi

  2. Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Piera Rizzolo, Virginia Valentini, Veronica Zelli & Laura Ottini

  3. Radiology Section, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Michele Pietragalla

  4. Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Francesco Maria Galassi

Authors
  1. Raffaella Santi
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  2. Piera Rizzolo
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  3. Michele Pietragalla
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  4. Virginia Valentini
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  5. Veronica Zelli
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  6. Francesco Maria Galassi
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  7. Laura Ottini
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  8. Gabriella Nesi
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Correspondence to Gabriella Nesi.

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Santi, R., Rizzolo, P., Pietragalla, M. et al. The antiquity of hydrocephalus: the first full palaeo-neuropathological description. Neurol Sci 40, 1315–1322 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-018-3643-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-018-3643-4

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