ZHANG Zhijing,CHEN Jiuzun,ZHOU Shengfa, et al. The imaging manifestation in aged spinal tuberculosis[J]. JOURNAL OF WEZHOU MEDICAL UNIVERSITY, 2016, 46(2): 137-139.
Abstract：Objective: To investigate the imaging fingdings in aged spinal tuberculosis. Methods: Imaging findings of 43 elderly patients with spinal tuberculosis proved pathologically or clinically were analyzed retrospectively. Results: Eighty-one vertebral bodies were affected in total, including 11, 24, 42 and 4 vertebral bodies separately in the cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacrococcygeal spine. Four cases were limited to a single vertebral body, 28 cases occurred in two adjacent vertebrae, and 20 cases involved multiple vertebral bodies. The X-ray features of the 35 patients mainly included: disc-space narrowing, vertebral bodies destruction or wedged, and spinal sequence disordering. Twenty-three of them were confirmed exactly, 7 cases were misdiagnosed, and 5 patients’ disease diagnoses were missed. The CT scan largely involved vertebral bodies destruction, abscess and sequestrum formation, paravertebral soft tissue swelling, intervertebral disc damaging and intervertebral space narrowing. Nineteen of them were proved accurately, 5 cases were misdiagnosed, and 2 patients diagnoses were missd. The major characteristics in MRI were vertebral body lesions (little low or low on T1W images, high on T2W images and visibly high on STIR), paraspinal soft tissue swelling and abscess informed. Also the dural sacs and spinal cord were compressed, intervertebral signal and shape changed. Sixteen cases were diagnosed correctly, 2 of them were misdiagnosed. Conclusion: The aged spinal tuberculosis which is difficult to distinguish from other diseases, e.g. spine degeneration, metastasis, is of special imaging characteristics. Imaging studies combining together are helpful to thoroughly observe and exactly diagnose the disease.
