ABSTRACT
A 28-year-old female presents to the emergency department with a 1-week history of central posterior neck pain, cough and intermittent fevers. She is a married office worker of South-East Asian origin and had immigrated to the UK 3 years previously from India. Patients at risk of TB include those at the extremes of age, diabetics, smokers, cancer patients and alcoholics. The primary route of infection is pulmonary or genitourinary, and 50% of all TB patients have a primary lung foci or history of pulmonary tuberculosis. Bone scan may show other skeletal sites of involvement; however, there is limited evidence that it can accurately differentiate between infection and metastasis. Positron emission tomography (PET) may have a role in identifying hypermetabolic abscesses to target for a higher yield to obtain tissue biopsy specimens. Tissue diagnosis is the gold standard diagnostic test for spinal tuberculosis.
