Malattie professionali dei cantanti castrati

Introduction Castration has been performed since centuries for different reasons. In modern times, following the birth of opera in Italy in 1600, appeared a new men figure with single vocal parts consisting of arias and recitatives. The demand for soprano voices grew up. From the end of the 16th to the whole 18th century, the prepuberal castration was carried out to preserve the young male voice into adult life. Aims Our study is focused on the reconstruction of the biological profile of Gaspare Pacchierotti (1740-1821), one of the most famous castrato singers of modern times. His remains were exhumed for the first time in 2013. Being the first complete skeleton of a castrato singer ever studied, we tried to understand the secrets behind his sublime voice and how the castration influenced his body. Methods We made different anthropological measurements on the remains. We performed Computed Tomography (CT) analysis on all the skeleton and X-ray microtomography (MM) on some bones’ samples. We used a 64-section scanner CT (Somatom Sensation 64, Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen, Germany). A Multi-modality workplace (Syngo Siemens) was used to reformat the data set in the coronal and sagittal planes. Volume rendered and surface-shaded-display three-dimensional models as well as three-dimensional animated virtual “fly-through” were created to facilitate analysis. Results Even if all the skeletal markers confirmed the advanced age at death of Pacchierotti (81 years old), the epiphyseal lines on the iliac crests were visible. Pacchierotti’s cervical vertebrae were strongly eroded with signs of osteophytic lipping in the body, because of osteoporosis and of continuous movements of head and neck during singing exercises. Another important marker found in Pacchierotti’s remains was the insertion of three important respiratory muscles on the second ribs, the scalenus posterior, which elevates the second rib, the serratus anterior, which can lift the ribs and assist in respiration, and the serratus posterior superior, that elevates second to fifth ribs and aids deep inspiration. Both scapulae had a marked infraglenoid tubercle due to a strong insertion of the long head of the triceps brachii muscle, which acts on the shoulder joint and is involved in retroversion and adduction of the arm. The CT scan pointed out a general calcareous atrophy with multiple cribrosus bones in the vertebral walls. The cervical vertebrae were strongly eroded; there was an anterior wedge-shaped vertebra (T7), an anterior vertebral wall fracture in both L1 and L2 that can be due to osteoporosis; there were also several osteophytes between L3 and L4, and a Schmorl’s nodes in the vertebral body endplate of L4.