Aorto-mesenteric and renal allograft transplant: a novel treatment for midaortic syndrome.

Midaortic syndrome (MAS) is a rare condition characterized by stenosis of the aorta and often involving renal and visceral arteries. Current therapies include medical management of associated hypertension, and interventional procedures such as angioplasty or surgical bypass. We report a 2-year-old female with severe MAS who was initially treated with angioplasty and stents in both her aorta and superior mesenteric artery (SMA). Due to the presence of long segment stenoses, her renal arteries were not amenable to surgical reconstruction and she rapidly progressed to Stage V chronic kidney disease. The patient underwent bilateral nephrectomy and renal transplantation using a donor thoracoabdominal aorta allograft to provide inflow for the kidney as well as to bypass the nearly occluded aorta. The donor SMA was used to bypass the native SMA stenosis. Postoperatively, the patient had normalization of four limb blood pressures. She weaned from five anti-hypertensive agents to monotherapy with excellent renal function. This is the first reported case of thoracoabdominal aortic bypass using allograft aorta to address MAS. This approach allowed for successful kidney transplantation with revascularization of the mesenteric, and distal aortic circulation using allograft conduit that will grow with the child, obviating the need for repeated interventional or surgical procedures.

Brief communication: first evidence of LSAMAT in non-native Americans: historic Senegalese from west Africa.

To date, the distinctive dental wear pattern known as LSAMAT, or "lingual surface attrition of the maxillary anterior teeth," has been documented in prehistoric samples from Brazil, Panama, and Puerto Rico only. However, new data from a historic Senegalese sample reveals the first example of this wear pattern outside the Americas. The Senegal LSAMAT is present in 45% of 22 adult crania, and is associated with a caries rate of 40% in 38 adults (6.7% of 534 permanent teeth). A correlation between LSAMAT and caries was also observed in the Latin American samples. In these cases, it was hypothesized that LSAMAT was caused by the specialized consumption of an abrasive, high carbohydrate food, such as manioc. Manioc is a common cultigen in Senegal; thus, it may have also caused the African LSAMAT. The chewing of sugar cane could have been an additional, contributing factor.

Cannibalism in Chaco Canyon: the charnel pit excavated in 1926 at Small House ruin by Frank H.H. Roberts, Jr.

A charnel pit that contained the disarticulated and intentionally damaged remains of eight incomplete adult and subadult Anasazi skeletons was found and excavated in 1926 by F.H.H. Roberts, Jr., at an AD 900 ruin he named Small House, located in Chaco Canyon, northwestern New Mexico. Damage includes extensive perimortem cranial and postcranial bone breakage, cut marks, anvil-hammerstone abrasions, burning, many missing vertebrae, and fragment end-polishing. Together, these six types of perimortem damage are believed to be the taphonomic signature of prehistoric Anasazi cannibalism. The possible cause of the Small House episode is discussed within the framework of two explanatory models--random social pathology and institutionalized social control by violent means.

Brief communication: variation in the frequency and form of the lower permanent molar middle trigonid crest.

The frequency and form of the middle trigonid crest (MTC) in lower permanent molars is reported for 1,131 dental casts of Bushman (San), Bantu, Solomons, Hawaiians, Pima, Eskimo, Navajo, Chinese, and American whites. The MTC occurs most often on the first molar. We found very little intra-trait variation, so observations were scored on a present-absent basis. The MTC is most frequent in the African samples and rare in those of the other populations. Two reference plaques can be obtained to add to the existing series in the ASU dental anthropology system.

Major features of Sundadonty and Sinodonty, including suggestions about East Asian microevolution, population history, and late Pleistocene relationships with Australian aboriginals.

The eight diagnostic morphological traits of the Sundadont and Sinodont divisions of the Mongoloid dental complex are identified. Intra- and intergroup variation for these crown and root features is plotted. The univariate frequency distributions provide useful evidence for several suggestions about East Asian prehistory, dental microevolution, and intergroup relationships. The case for local evolution of Sundadonty is strengthened by finding Australian teeth to be very similar to this pattern. Australian Aboriginal teeth are also generally like those of Jomonese and some Ainus, suggesting that members of the late Pleistocene Sundaland population could have initially colonized Sahulland as well as the continental shelf of East Asia northward to Hokkaido.

Human skeletal and dental remains from Lapita sites (1600-500 B.C.) in the Mussau Islands, Melanesia.

The Lapita Cultural Complex, radiometrically dated to between 3,600 and 2,500 B.P., is regarded on archaeological evidence as ancestral to modern Austronesian-speaking cultures of eastern Melanesia and Polynesia. To date, there has been a lack of human skeletal and dental material from Lapita sites; thus, the present sample from Mussau Island, although small, offers an opportunity to present some preliminary observations of their importance to Oceanic prehistory. The present analysis, based mainly on teeth, suggests that the Mussau Island Lapita people had slightly closer affinities with Indonesian than with Melanesian populations. These results correspond well with linguistic and archaeological evidence regarding the origin of the Lapita Cultural Complex.

Teeth and prehistory in Asia.

Where did the peoples of East Asia, Polynesia and the Americas originate? Teeth tell the story. Analysis of minute dental features shows that two great population groups formed in southeast Asia beginning more than 20,000 years ago. The movement of one group can be traced across the Bering land bridge into North America and all the way to Chile.

Morphological and metrical comparison of San and Central Sotho dentitions from southern Africa.

Comparative morphological and metrical study of San and Central Sotho dentitions indicates that the teeth of the two samples are significantly different from one another. The San dental complex contains traits that add mass to the occlusal surface of microdontic dentitions: moderate low-grade UI1 (13.5%) and UI2 shoveling (24.7%), high Bushman canine (43.1%), fairly low UM2 hypocone reduction (23.3%), high UM2 cusp 5 (55.6%), high LM1 cusp 7 (35.2%), LM1 distal trigonid crest (7.1%), and LM2 deflecting wrinkle (5.3%), lack of reduction of LM1 and LM2 cusp number, in the presence of very low UM1 Carabelli's trait (6.7%) and high LM2 Y-groove (86.3%). Culturally, males occasionally exhibit filed UI1 and females are missing LI1. Conversely, mesodontic Central Sotho dentitions display a more simplified morphology, with the exception of moderately high incidence of UM1 Carabelli's trait (41.0%) and very high LM1 cusp 7 (71.3%). Discriminant analysis of mesiodistal and buccolingual diameters and tooth crown surface area data for the left maxillary teeth supports classification of San dentitions as microdont and Central Sotho dentitions as mesodont. Additionally, metrical analysis indicates that San teeth are more sexually dimorphic than are those of Central Sotho.

Late Pleistocene and Holocene population history of East Asia based on dental variation.

The purpose of this communication is to provide a summary description and analysis of 28 dental traits studied in a number of skeletal samples that originated in eastern Asia. The objectives of the analysis are to define the nature of Mongoloid dental variation, use it to measure Asian intergroup relationships, and develop in greater detail and with larger samples a dental anthropological model of the late Pleistocene and Holocene population history of eastern Asia.

More lingual surface attrition of the maxillary anterior teeth in American Indians: prehistoric Panamanians.

Lingual surface attrition of the maxillary anterior teeth (LSA-MAT) has been found in additional prehistoric Latin American Indian skeletons. LSAMAT was first observed in crania from an Archaic Brazilian site. This second finding occurs in teeth from Venado Beach, a late prehistoric site in Panama. LSAMAT is also present in some fragmentary specimens from the Archaic Cerro Mangote site in Panama. LSAMAT at Venado Beach is present in 57% of 28 adult crania. As in the Brazilian study, LSAMAT is associated with a high caries rate (82% of 50 adults; 11.7% of 852 permanent teeth). As first suggested, eating and processing of some type of abrasive carbohydrate food, such as manioc, is the possible cause of LSAMAT. However, other possible causes relating to habitation on or near marine coasts cannot be totally ruled out.

Dentochronological separation estimates for pacific rim populations.

Dental morphology of American Indians, Asians, and Pacific islanders is used with a multivariate statistic to estimate when genetic separation occurred between several populations. These estimates generally match independent estimates of separation. This method, called dentochronology, gives an American Indian fission date from Asians of about 13,000 +/- 3,000 years ago, which agrees with archeological data and rules out a European origin because of temporal priority. Polynesians split from Southeast Asians 5,000 +/- 2,200 years ago and are not derived from Melanesians. Ainu-Jomon originated in Sundaland 14,000 +/- 3,300 years ago. Africans have been separated from Asian-Americans 60,000 +/- 6,100 years.

Intra- and interobserver concordance in classifying dental morphology.

A sample of 50 Kodiak Island Eskimo dental casts were observed, using standard reference plaques, three times by one observer and once by a second observer, for 47 graded and discrete morphological characters of the dentition and jaws. Although the frequency of both intra- and interobserver scoring differences between observation sessions are relatively high for some characters, statistical analysis reveals that differences are largely random in direction and cancel out. Most dental morphological variants can be observed in a ranked fashion with adequate within- and between-observer reliability. However, four traits present both within- and between-observer difficulties: the tuberculum dentale, the canine distal accessory ridge, marginal accessory cusps of the upper first premolar, and the anterior fovea on the lower first molar.

Expression count: a method for calculating morphological dental trait frequencies by using adjustable weighting coefficients with standard ranked scales.

Expression count is the term used for a new method of calculating the frequency of a morphological dental trait in a population sample. This method incorporates into a single value the total trait variation expressed in the sample. It has been designed to increase the information content of small samples of dental remains common with archeological recovery.

Variation in the convexity of the human maxillary incisor labial surface.

Labial surface convexity of the maxillary central incisors ( ILC ) is classified with a new five grade ranked scale. More than 2,000 individuals representing 20 worldwide populations were studied. Principle findings are 1) sexual dimorphism is not significant, 2) antimere asymmetry is moderate, 3) labial convexity is negatively associated (r = -0.48) with labial surface double- shovelling , and 4) significant differences occur between several populations. Convexity is most marked in African and Asiatic Indian populations, particularly Bushmen . Europeans have intermediate degrees of convexity, and American Indians the least; Eskimos have the highest amount of convexity among Native Americans. Pacific Islanders are intermediate; Melanesians show the strongest expression of incisor labial convexity in the Pacific.

Advances in the dental search for Native American origins.

The Sinodont dental morphology pattern of NE Asia is today more complex and was so by 20,000 years ago, than the simplified Sundadonty of SE Asia-Oceania, and the very simplified pattern that evolved greater than 20,000 B.P. All Native Americans are Sinodonts. Intra--and inter-hemispheric statistical analyses of 28 dental traits in greater than 6000 N & S American and greater than 1100 NE Asian crania reveal three temporally stable American sub-patterns, suggesting prior evolution in Sino-Siberia. The hypothesized biocultural associations and migration episodes are: (1) "Upper Cave" Sinodonts with the generalized Chinese Microlithic Tradition reach the Arctic steppe via the Lena basin to become Paleo--and most later Indians. (2) Smaller-game-hunting Siberian Diuktaians cross to Alaska at forest-forming terminal land bridge times to become Paleo-Arctic and subsequent Na-Dene-speaking NW forest Indians. (3) Lower Amur basin-N Japan blade-makingfolk evolve a coastal culture on the way to the land bridge's SE terminus at Anangula-Umnak where the oldest skeletons of the dentally distinctive but variable Aleut-Eskimos have been found.

Dentition of Chilean paleo-Indians and peopling of the Americas.

Teeth of 12 cremated paleo-Indians (11,000 years old) from caves in southern Chile have crown and root morphology like that of recent American Indians and north Asians, but unlike that of Europeans. This finding supports the view that American Indians originated in northeast Asia. This dental series also suggests that paleo-Indians could easily have been ancestral to most living Indians, that very little dental evolution has occurred, and that the founding paleo-Indian population was small, genetically homogeneous, and arrived late in the Pleistocene.

Root number determination in maxillary first premolars for modern human populations.

It is suggested that multiple root number of the maxillary first premolar be defined on the basis of lingual and buccal-root bifurcation greater than one-fourth to one-third (25%--33%) the buccal-root length. This meets pragmatic considerations and would enhance comparability of between-observer findings for an apparently independent trait of potential importance for population characterization, forensic identification, and microevolutionary analysis.