Individualizing unidentified skeletal remains: a differential diagnosis combining pathological changes and biomolecular testing

Abstract

Collaborative work among anthropologists, pathologists, and biomolecular analysts can maximize information included in a biological profile of skeletal remains. This case study demonstrates the benefits of a multidisciplinary approach to help diagnose disease processes from skeletal remains. In this case, skeletal pathologies on unidentified human remains appeared to be a result of both ankylosing spondylitis and spinal tuberculosis. This tentative diagnosis provided a starting point for biomolecular testing to help confirm these putative findings. The extraction of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA from bone samples indicated the disease's presence in this skeleton. Molecular screening for HLA-B27 to assess ankylosing spondylitis (AS) was, however, inconclusive. This case study demonstrates how macroscopic and biomolecular analyses can be useful in assisting in the identification of disease processes of an unknown individual in a forensic context.