The study of entheses: proposal of a standardised scoring method for twenty-three entheses of the postcranial skeleton.

Abstract

Entheses are always visible on the bone, although with variable forms and degrees of expression. The term "robusticity" indicates the "normal" osseous markings at entheses, while "enthesopathy", indicates the presence of enthesophytes or osteolytic areas. A scoring method for enthesopathy development has already been proposed. In this paper, a standardised descriptive and photographic scoring method is proposed for the robusticity of 23 postcranial skeleton entheses. For each enthesis, 3 levels of development are described, corresponding, in general, to a weak-moderate expression (degree 1), strong development (degree 2) and very strong development (degree 3). The interobserver error of about 20% seems acceptable given the great morphological variability of these traits.