title: [Spondylodiscitis].
abstract: Despite highly sensitive imaging techniques, the diagnosis and treatment of spondylodiscitis are often delayed due to a lack of specific symptoms with back pain as the presenting complaint. Late diagnosis and neurological involvement at the time of diagnosis are risk factors for long-term neurological deficits. Unremitting back pain with signs of inflammation should give reason to suspect spondylodiscitis and to rule it out by imaging, especially if risk factors such as diabetes mellitus, malignant neoplasms or immunosuppression are present. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the imaging procedure of choice with high sensitivity and specificity and typically shows hypointense adjacent vertebrae on T1-weighted images with hyperintense signal on short tau inversion recovery (STIR) sequences and hyperintense disc spaces on T2-weighted images.
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Diagnostische und Interventionelle Neuroradiologie, Universitätsklinikum des Saarlandes, Kirrberger Straße 1, 66424, Homburg/Saar, Deutschland. umut.yilmaz@uks.eu
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Yilmaz
mesh_terms: D001416:Back Pain / Q000209:etiology; D003287:Contrast Media; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D015299:Discitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D020802:Epidural Abscess / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007403:Intervertebral Disc / Q000473:pathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*; D014399:Tuberculosis, Spinal / Q000175:diagnosis
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media