Objective. To evaluate the clinical, laboratory, and radiological presentation of 16 cases of brucellar spondylitis. Methods.The clinical\nmanifestations, laboratory tests, and imaging findings of 16 patients (aged from 24 to 66 years) with brucellar spondylitis treated\nbetween September 2012 and September 2014 at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi�an Jiaotong University (Xi�an, China) were\nretrospectively analyzed. Results. Clinical manifestations included high fever, severe pain, sweating, and fatigue. One patient had\nepididymitis, and two showed clear signs of spinal nerve damage. Laboratory tests showed elevated erythrocyte sedimentation\nrate (ESR) and C-reactive protein content. Serum brucella agglutination tests were positive, and 11 brucella blood cultures were\npositive. Imagingmanifestationsmainly consisted of abnormal signals in the intervertebral space or abnormal signals in the adjacent\nvertebral bodies (16/16, 100%) in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), disc space narrowing (14/16, 88%) in X-ray and MRI, or bone\ndestruction and sclerosis around the damaged zone (13/16, 81%) in computed tomography, with rare cases of psoas abscess (2/16,\n13%) and sequestrum(1/16, 6%). Conclusion. Since brucellar spondylitis exhibited characteristic clinical and imagingmanifestations,\nit could be diagnosed with specific laboratory tests. Early MRI examination of suspected cases could improve rapid diagnosis.
Loading....