Diagnose Spinal
Tuberculosis
Spinal tuberculosis is an infection of the backbone by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium. It is one of the oldest celebrated diseases and has plagued humans in that Neolithic times. Spinal tuberculosis is all the more a conventional disease in developing countries, although it is nowadays uncommon in the USA. Tuberculosis is contagious and can basis permanent neurological damage and spinal deformities, exceptionally in developing children.
Confirm the diagnosis by culturing Mycobacterium tuberculosis from bone or abscess samples. These findings will be positive in only half of the cases.
Back distress is normally the earliest symptom and the hurt may be radicular or spinal. Fever and weight loss further may be display.
2. Expect spinal tuberculosis to bear on sth. the lower thoracic backbone (45 percent) and the lumbar backbone (40 percent) in most cases. Neurological abnormalities will exist in half of these cases, including cauda equina syndrome, impaired sensation, nerve root pain, paraplegia and paresis.
3. Observe tuberculosis of the cervical spine in 10 percent of the cases. This is potentially more serious because complications are more likely. This form causes pain and stiffness and may be accompanied by difficulty in swallowing or high-pitched respiration.
4. Perform laboratory tests when spinal tuberculosis is suspected. A Tuberculin skin test is positive in about 90 percent of patients who are HIV negative and the Erythrocyte sedimentation rate may be greater than 100 mm/hr.
5.
