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- Title
Three cases of misdiagnosed skeletal lytic lesions: the mimicry of tuberculosis.
- Authors
Datta, Sumona; Lohani, Sudhir
- Abstract
In areas of low to medium prevalence of tuberculosis, unfamiliarity with the disease leads to delays in diagnosis or even misdiagnosis. Osteomyelitis or septic arthritis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis in adults commonly presents as a single lesion. The three cases of skeletal tuberculosis reported in this article presented as multifocal disease with bony lytic lesions in otherwise healthy patients in a British district general hospital. These cases presented to different medical specialties, and were misdiagnosed as metastatic malignancy, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Delay in diagnosis allows the disease to progress, leading to bony destruction and possible neurological involvement that early intervention would have prevented. These case reports highlight the warning signs that should have alerted the clinicians earlier that this could be tuberculosis and outline how the delay in diagnosis has impacted their mobility.
- Publication
British Journal of Hospital Medicine (17508460), 2012, Vol 73, Issue 6, p351
- ISSN
1750-8460
- Publication type
Journal Article