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Published on: September 5, 2017
A kidney's ingenious path to trimillennar preservation: Renal tuberculosis in an Egyptian mummy?
Carlos Prates1, Carlos Oliveira1, Sandra Sousa1
1IMI Imagens Médicas Integradas, Av da República 99 B, 1050-190 Lisbon, Portugal.
Abstract:
Irtieru is a male mummy enclosed in cartonnage, dating to the Third Intermediate Period in the Egyptian collection of the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia in Lisbon. The computed tomography scans of this mummy showed a small dense bean-shaped structure at the left lumbar region. Its anatomical location, morphologic and structural analysis support a diagnosis of end-stage renal tuberculosis. If this diagnosis is correct, this will be the oldest example of kidney tuberculosis, and the first one recorded in an intentionally mummified ancient Egyptian.
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