Spectrometric analysis and scanning electronic microscopy of two pleural plaque...

• Author(s): Fernandes, Teresa
• Date: 2014
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10174/11422
• Origin: Repositório Científico da Universidade de Évora
• Subject(s): Calcified soft tissue; Infectious disease; Mediaeval Portuguese cemetery; Pleural plaques
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

During an archaeological excavation at a mediaeval monastery (Flor da Rosa, Crato, Portugal), a skeleton of a adult woman was found with two calcifications in the thoracic cage. The location and the macroscopic analysis of the calcifications allowed them to be assigned as pleural plaques. Spectrometric analysis and scanning electronic microscopy enabled to establish that it originated with an infectious process. These results associated with the lesions found in the ribs and vertebrae strongly suggest tuberculosis as the cause of these pleural plaques.