Tuberculosis discitis Lumbar LSBU

Description: Radiology case 338-231 Clinical presentation: 27 year old man, originally from India, with increasing back pain and a raised erythrocyte sedimentation rate.
There is loss of disc space between the 3rd and 4th lumbar vertebrae and some blurring of the lower end-plate of L3. The density of the body is irregular in the lateral view suggesting some central destruction. The AP view shows displacement of the paraspinal fat planes and a low contrast soft tissue mass with its centre of radius on the right side of the disc space between L3 and L4, where there is a small blurred defect in the cortical bone in the lower right lateral margin of the third lumbar vertebra, in-comparison with the well defined convex curve on its left side.