[Tutankhamun and sickle-cell anaemia].
ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2010;
103:346-7. [PMID:
20972847 DOI:
10.1007/s13149-010-0095-3]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2010] [Accepted: 09/29/2010] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
After casting doubt on malaria as the cause of death for Tutankhamun, the author points out that the hypothesis of homozygotic sickle-cell anaemia, or a double HbS/β₀thal heterozygosis, is hardly more credible. To have any chance of being valid, any such hypothesis would have to involve a combination of at least three rare factors: survival until the age of 19 of a subject with homozygotic sickle-cell anaemia, with a probability at birth as to a life expectancy of more than five years probably standing at less than 5%, and with, for all bone sequelae and anomalies, osteonecrosis whose location is characteristic, not of sickle-cell anaemia, but rather of a case of Freiberg-Kohler syndrome, which is also rare, but which is on the other hand fully compatible with the condition of the mummy's skeleton.
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