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© 1987 British Society for Rheumatology

research-article

SPINAL BRUCELLOSIS

C. N. A. RAJAPAKSE1, A. KARIM AL-ASKA1, I. AL-ORAINEY1, K. HALIM2 and K. ARABI3

1Department of Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2Department of Immunology , King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
3Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Correspondence to: Address correspondence to Dr. C. N. A. Rajapakse

The findings in 44 patients with back pain and brucellosis are described. Radiological changes tended to occur in older patients with a longer duration of disease. The younger patients more often experienced an acute arthritis with sacroiliitis resembling a reactive disease. Bone scanning was more sensitive than radiographs, particularly in detecting acute sacroiliitis and hip involvement. The lumbar spine was the most frequently involved site although no part of the spine was spared. Extensive destruction of a vertebral body with little involvement of the adjacent vertebrae, lower lumbar spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis, and discitis with calcification were striking radiological findings hitherto undescribed in brucellosis. Computerized axial tomography (CAT) scanning revealed vertebral-arch destruction in three cases of spondylolisthesis. Circumferential sclerosis of the vertebral bodies was another CAT-scan finding.

KEY WORDS: Brucella, Back pain, Sacroiliitis, Bone scan, Spine


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