Diagnosing tuberculous spondylitis: patients with back pain referred to a rheumatology outpatient department

The onset of tuberculous spondylitis is insidious in nature, with various clinical presentations, slow development of radiographic abnormalities, and nonspecific constitutional symptoms. This lack of specific symptoms causes delays in diagnosis. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrates osteitis, intraosseous abscesses, paravertebral and epidural soft tissue extensions and abscesses, discitis, multilevel involvement of spinal cord or nerve root compression, and scoliosis. We present six patients with tuberculous spondylitis referred to our outpatient department with back pain resistant to medical therapy. All of them were women aged from 25 to 58 years (mean 44.6). The diagnosis of tuberculous spondylitis was based on clinical presentation, radiographic and/or MRI evidence of focal destructive vertebral lesions (with paravertebral mass), and positive bacteriological findings of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The combined antituberculous chemotherapy consisted of 1.0 g/day streptomycin for 1 month, 25 mg/kg ethambutol or 25 mg/kg pyrazinamide, 600 mg/day rifampicin, and 300 mg/day isoniazid. The duration of therapy was 12 months. All the patients recovered without any sequelae. The mean follow-up period was 28 months (range 12–48). Magnetic resonance imaging is considered the main imaging modality for patients with suspected tuberculous spondylitis; it must be included in differential diagnosis of back pain and, if it is diagnosed in early stages, antituberculous chemotherapy enables satisfactory outcome.