Enthesopathies--proposal of a standardized scoring method and applications

Enthesopathies are alterations that could be present at entheses. Two types of enthesopathies have been defined: osteophytic (OF) and osteolytic (OL). In the present paper, we propose a standardized method to score the degree of development of each form of enthesopathy. With this method, the intra- and interobserver errors are less than 50%. The standard was used to study a sample (113 individuals) deriving from osteological collections from the late XIX-early XX century. Information about the age, sex and occupation of the individuals is available. This study demonstrated an effect of age on the form and the degree of development of enthesopathies. The influence of factors related to sex and occupation cannot be excluded. Therefore, functional interpretations of data on enthesopathies in osteoarchaeological series must take account of the estimated age and sex of the specimens and the distribution of the lesions within a single skeleton.