Arthritis, Heart Disease Detected in ‘Ice Man’ Body

The 5,300-year-old “Ice Man,” whose well-preserved body was discovered in a glacier three years ago in the Alps, had arthritis, hardening of the arteries and broken ribs that healed slowly, researchers reported Wednesday.

“It’s really not much different from modern man,” said Dr. William A. Murphy Jr., head of diagnostic imaging at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “There are just very impressive similarities.”

Murphy reported on the medical miseries of the mummy, dubbed “Otzi” because it was found in Italy’s Otzval Valley, at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

Researchers believe the gap-toothed Otzi was 25 to 40 when he died, but he already had developed fairly severe osteoarthritis--the kind believed to result from wear and tear--in his neck, lower back and one hip, Murphy said.

Calcium deposits were discovered in the blood vessels of Otzi’s chest, pelvis and neck, indicating heart disease stalked the Stone Age man despite his almost certainly rigorous existence.

About eight fractures were discovered in Otzi’s ribs, but no one can say whether they occurred all at once or at different times, Murphy said.

“It’s the kind of thing that might have hospitalized modern man. It certainly would have sent modern man to the emergency room,” he said. “He did very well with these; he certainly lived well beyond the injuries.”

Murphy was part of an international team assembled at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, to examine the mummy with modern X-rays.