Tuberculous spondylitis, also known as Pott’s disease, is due to infection of the spine by mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) leading vertebral body and inter-vertebral disc destruction. It most common form musculoskeletal frequently affecting thoracolumbar commoner in young people. Onset this condition insidious its clinical presentation non specific. However, disease may be complicated neurolog...

The nature of the activating antigen, however, has been an enigma over decades of sarcoidosis research. The histological similarities between sarcoidosis and tuberculosis, and the usefulness of tuberculin preparations in the Mendel-Mantoux test, led to the search for an antigen-containing extract, and in the middle of the last century, the first “antigen” was isolated from the spleen cells of p...

Sarcoidosis is a multisystem inflammatory disease of unknown etiology affecting multiple organs. Earlier reports suggested that sarcoidosis was a disease of the developed world. However, recent reports suggest that the disease is found in the developing countries as well. Clinical, radiological, and histopathological similarities with tuberculosis pose a great challenge in countries endemic for...

We reviewed 31 cases (19 males and 12 females) of spinal tuberculosis seen at the National Tuberculosis Centre from 1985 to 1989. The mean age was 35.4 years. The predominant clinical feature was backache (90.3%), while neurological features were found in 30.9%. An elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (in 80.0%) and a positive Mantoux test (in 70.9%) served as useful investigations. Spinal x...

A 47-year-old man with a negative Mantoux test received infliximab 800 mg fortnightly in August 2005 for treatment of ankylosing spondylitis. He developed haemoptysis after receiving the third dose in September 2005 and therefore infliximab was stopped. CT thorax in April 2006 showed evidence of mycetoma at the left upper lobe (fig 1A, B). In view of persistent haemoptysis and radiological dete...

A 13-year old Malay school girl who had been apparently normal previously, presented with a three-month history of fever, malaise and loss of weight. She had anemia and raised values for ESR, lactic dehydrogenase, C-reactive protein, ferritin and a positive mantoux test. Her routine chest x-ray showed hilar prominence suggestive of hilar lymph node enlargement. C.T. Scan of the thorax revealed ...

BACKGROUND Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated tuberculosis is a major cause of mortality in Africa. The assay of T cell interferon- gamma released in response to antigens of greater specificity than purified protein derivative is a useful improvement over the Mantoux tuberculin skin test, but few studies have evaluated interferon-gamma secretion in HIV-infected individuals. METHODS...

BACKGROUND Tuberculosis is the second leading cause of death from infectious disease. Insufficient knowledge among doctors about tuberculosis is one of the reasons for the increased tuberculosis rates in several low-endemic countries. The purpose of this study was to assess knowledge, experience, and attitude about tuberculosis among medical students. MATERIAL AND METHODS After a pilot study,...