Discussion
Diagnosis With Brief Discussion
- Diagnosis
- Tuberculous osteomyelitis in left clavicle
- Radiologic Findings
- Chest CT images show a well-defined osteolytic lesion with cortical destruction and soft tissue mass formation in the medial end of the left clavicle, which shows soft tissue mass formation extending to the anterior chest wall (Fig 2a-b). MR images show a well- defined irregular shaped abscess lesion with extension to the subcutaneous area. The lesion is which shows relatively low signal intensity (SI) in the central portion on both T1- and T2-weighted images (WI), with a smooth, thin rim showingand rim of high SI on T2-WI (Fig 3a), slightly high SI on T1-WI (Fig 3b), and diffuse enhancementweighted image (WI) (Fig 3a) and rim of mildly increased SI on T1WI (Fig3b). This lesion has thin and smooth wall with increased enhancement on contrast enhancement T1-WIGd-T1WI (Fig 3c).
The Eexcisional biopsy in theof the lesion was performed, and the pathological analysis left clavicle revealed chronic granulomatous inflammation with necrosis and positive for tuberculosis in nested PCR.
- Brief Review
- Extrapulmonary tuberculosis presenting with skeletal involvement accounts for 1 to 4% of all patients with tuberculosis. Osteoarticular tuberculosis is almost always secondary to a primary focus elsewhere in the body, and an definite attempt should be made to examinescreening the pulmonary, GI tract, and renal systems for evidence of disease. Most of the cases with skeletal involvement are in the spine, and involvement of the appendicular skeleton is unusual. Tubercular involvement of the clavicle is extremely rare. The lesions may be destructive or proliferative (spina ventosa). In tuberculosis of the clavicle, plain radiographs may show diffuse thickening and honeycombing, or multiple cystic cavities, or sequestration, similar to pyogenic osteomyelitis. It can resemble a neoplastic process with expansile or destructive features radiological picture on radiographs, often requiringhence a biopsy may be necessary to confirm the diagnosis. On CT, destructive changes are better appreciated, particularly in the bone window setting. MR imaging can help in the early detection and better delineation of the extent of tuberculous ostomyelitis. Tubercular granulomas show low to intermediate signal intensity on T2-weighted images, due to the presence of central caseating necrosis. Lesions with a rim of mildly high signal intensity on T1-weighted images, a non-specific indicator of an infective process, may also be seen.
- References
- 1. AN Aggarwal, IK Dhammi, AP Singh, Skumar, MK Goyal Tubercular osteomyelitis of the clavicle: a report of four cases Journal of orthopaedic surgery 20016;17(1):123
2. PL Basanagoudar, PN Gupta, R Bahadur, MS Dhillon Tuberculosis of the clavicle presenting as an extpansile lytic lesion: a case report Acta Orthopaedica Belgica 2001;67(5):505
3. P Sharma MR features of tuberculous osteomyelitis Skeletal Rariol 2013;32:279
- Keywords
- Chest wall, Infection, Bacterial infection, Tuberculosis,