title: Tophaceous gout of the thoracic spine presenting as back pain and fever.
abstract: Spinal gout has been reported only rarely. We describe a 59-year-old man with a history of gout, who was receiving chronic immunosuppressive therapy after a renal transplant and who presented with fever and back pain. After an extensive work-up and biopsy, the diagnosis was thoracic tophaceous gout. The pain and fever responded to prednisone and allopurinol. Tophaceous gout is a rare cause of fever and back pain but should be considered in the differential diagnosis in the appropriate clinical setting.
authors.affiliation: Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hausch
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wilkerson
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Reyes
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Harrington