Characteristics and Management of Spinal Tuberculosis in Tuberculosis Endemic Area of Guizhou Province: A Retrospective Study of 597 Patients in a Teaching Hospital

Single Sequence Whole-Spine Screening Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Role in Multiple-Level Spinal Tuberculosis

INTRODUCTION

Spinal tuberculosis (TB) is the most common form of skeletal tuberculosis. Paradiscal continuous vertebral involvement at a single level is the most prevalent pattern among all forms of spinal TB. There is a wide range of reported incidences of multiple-level non-contiguous spinal TB in the literature. We would like to discuss on the utility of single whole spine screening T2-weighted (T2W) mid-sagittal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) film in diagnosing multiple-level spinal TB and therapeutic benefits it can provide.

METHODS

We have done a retrospective review of the collected data of patients in Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital from August 2017 to October 2021 to find the incidence of multiple-level spinal TB and possible factors attributed to this specific disease pattern. All the patients who had been diagnosed of spinal TB either microbiologically or histopathologically or by a good clinical response to anti-tubercular treatment (ATT) and had a whole spine screening MRI film, were included. Patients of spinal TB who did not have a whole spine screening MRI were excluded from the study. Multiple-level spinal TB was diagnosed when lesions were identified in vertebral levels other than a typical paradiscal lesion, and additional lesions were separated from the primary disease by at least one normal spinal segment.

RESULTS

Among the patients, 242 met the inclusion criteria, and 76 showed multiple-level non-contiguous spinal TB on MRI, incidence being 31.4%. The rest of the 166 patients showed typical single-segment contiguous lesions. By doing multivariate analysis to determine the independent risk factors for multiple-level spinal TB, extremes of age (<20 years and >50 years) have been found to be a significant factor with p value of 0.0001. Though drug resistance was not found to be a significant risk factor (p value 0.051), the proportion of patients having multiple-level TB was far more in the drug-resistant group (13/76).

CONCLUSIONS

Single sequence whole spine screening MRI film is an effective, economical, and time-saving tool to detect multiple-level spinal TB. Along with its diagnostic accuracy, it also provides therapeutic benefits like access to a more approachable site for biopsy.

Accurate Differentiation of Spinal Tuberculosis and Spinal Metastases Using MR-Based Deep Learning Algorithms

Purpose

To explore the application of deep learning (DL) methods based on T2 sagittal MR images for discriminating between spinal tuberculosis (STB) and spinal metastases (SM).

Patients and Methods

A total of 121 patients with histologically confirmed STB and SM across four institutions were retrospectively analyzed. Data from two institutions were used for developing deep learning models and internal validation, while the remaining institutions' data were used for external testing. Utilizing MVITV2, EfficientNet-B3, ResNet101, and ResNet34 as backbone networks, we developed four distinct DL models and evaluated their diagnostic performance based on metrics such as accuracy (ACC), area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), F1 score, and confusion matrix. Furthermore, the external test images were blindly evaluated by two spine surgeons with different levels of experience. We also used Gradient-Class Activation Maps to visualize the high-dimensional features of different DL models.

Results

For the internal validation set, MVITV2 outperformed other models with an accuracy of 98.7%, F1 score of 98.6%, and AUC of 0.98. Other models followed in this order: EfficientNet-B3 (ACC: 96.1%, F1 score: 95.9%, AUC: 0.99), ResNet101 (ACC: 85.5%, F1 score: 84.8%, AUC: 0.90), and ResNet34 (ACC: 81.6%, F1 score: 80.7%, AUC: 0.85). For the external test set, MVITV2 again performed excellently with an accuracy of 91.9%, F1 score of 91.5%, and an AUC of 0.95. EfficientNet-B3 came second (ACC: 85.9, F1 score: 91.5%, AUC: 0.91), followed by ResNet101 (ACC:80.8, F1 score: 80.0%, AUC: 0.87) and ResNet34 (ACC: 78.8, F1 score: 77.9%, AUC: 0.86). Additionally, the diagnostic accuracy of the less experienced spine surgeon was 73.7%, while that of the more experienced surgeon was 88.9%.

Conclusion

Deep learning based on T2WI sagittal images can help discriminate between STB and SM, and can achieve a level of diagnostic performance comparable with that produced by experienced spine surgeons.

Spinal Tuberculosis: Features and Early Predictive Factors of Poor Outcomes

Introduction

Tuberculosis is still endemic in Tunisia. Among musculoskeletal involvement, spinal tuberculosis (STB) or «Pott's Disease» is the most common and can lead to serious neurological complications. The purpose of our study was to focus on STB features (clinical, biological, and radiological) and to identify factors associated with early unfavorable outcomes.

Methods

This was a monocentric retrospective study, over a period of 20 years (2000-2020). Only patients treated appropriately were included. Patients' informations were noted. We defined the favorable outcome criterion as weight gain, apyrexia, improvement of the general state, relief of pain, improvement in the classic inflammatory markers (CRP), and absence of vertebral deformities, neurological impairment, or sepsis. The outcome was considered unfavorable otherwise.

Results

Our study involved 52 patients. Their average age was 55.21 years±17.79. The average symptom duration was 8.9 months±6.54. Spinal pain was the most common functional sign (90.4%) often inflammatory. Physical signs were dominated by segmental spinal stiffness (71.2%). Spinal magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 38 patients. The disco-vertebral biopsy puncture confirmed the diagnosis in 15 cases. All patients received anti-tuberculosis treatments with an average duration of 10.02±1.97months. The outcome at one month of follow-up was favorable in 32 cases. Poor prognosis factors were normochromic normocytic anaemia (p=0.018), initial lymphocytosis (p=0.048), and fever (p=0.01). However, vertebral fracture at standard X-ray was predictive of favorable outcome (p=0.001).

Conclusion

STB is a frequent condition that needs to be treated rapidly. Poor prognosis factors were identified in this study such as normocytic normochromic anemia, initial lymphocytosis, and fever at baseline.

Tuberculosis of the spine

Pott's spine, commonly known as spinal tuberculosis (TB), is an extrapulmonary form of TB caused by Mycobacterium TB. Pott's paraplegia occurs when the spine is involved. Spinal TB is usually caused by the hematogenous spread of infection from a central focus, which can be in the lungs or another location. Spinal TB is distinguished by intervertebral disc involvement caused by the same segmental arterial supply, which can result in severe morbidity even after years of approved therapy. Neurological impairments and spine deformities are caused by progressive damage to the anterior vertebral body. The clinical, radiographic, microbiological, and histological data are used to make the diagnosis of spinal TB. In Pott's spine, combination multidrug antitubercular therapy is the basis of treatment. The recent appearance of multidrug-resistant/extremely drug-resistant TB and the growth of human immunodeficiency virus infection have presented significant challenges in the battle against TB infection. Patients who come with significant kyphosis or neurological impairments are the only ones who require surgical care. Debridement, fusion stabilization, and correction of spinal deformity are the cornerstones of surgical treatment. Clinical results for the treatment of spinal TB are generally quite good with adequate and prompt care.

Analysis of Clinical Characteristics of 556 Spinal Tuberculosis Patients in Two Tertiary Teaching Hospitals in Guangxi Province

Spinal tuberculosis (STB), which accounts for half of musculoskeletal tuberculosis, is among the leading causes of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Guangxi Province, located in southern China, is among the most severely affected provinces in China. In this study, we collected and analyzed data from 2 Class-A tertiary teaching hospitals in Nanning City, Guangxi Province, from 2011 to 2019, with the aim of providing reference points for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis analysis of STB, using the epidemiological characteristics of 556 STB cases. Our results revealed that males had a slightly higher incidence (50.17%) compared to females (49.83%), with 64.93% of cases falling between the ages of 18 and 45 years. Cases from rural communities accounted for 63.49% of the reviewed cases. The average time between onset of symptoms and hospitalization was 18.0 months (range: 1 day-220 months). The most commonly reported symptoms were lower back pain (78.60%), radicular pain (51.98%), and systemic toxemia (43.53%). Additionally, 53.98% of the reviewed cases had varying degrees of neurological impairment. The main pathological lesion locations were the lumbar spine (43.53%) and thoracic spine (32.55%). Among them, 72.66% of cases involved at least 2 vertebral segments, and 62.77% of cases presented with paravertebral abscesses. Among the cases reviewed, 90.65% underwent antituberculosis chemotherapy prior to surgery. Following treatment, the cure rate was 78.41%, while 3.78% of patients had postoperative relapse. There were cases of concomitant illnesses among the cases reviewed, 40.65% of patients also had pulmonary tuberculosis, 15.29% had hepatitis B, 13.30% had diabetes, and 7.91% had hypertension. Our results still demonstrate that spinal tuberculosis remains a serious public health problem in Guangxi Province. Thus, preventive measures should be directed towards rural residents with comorbidities such as the elderly and diabetic.