title: Clinical findings of vertebral osteomyelitis: Brucella spp. versus other etiologic agents.
abstract: We aimed to evaluate patients with vertebral osteomyelitis (VO) in our region and to compare the clinical and laboratory parameters of brucellar and non-brucellar VO patients (NBVO). This retrospective study included 80 patients with VO followed in our hospital between August 2004 and September 2010. The distribution of gender was 43 females (53.8%) and 37 males (46.2%) with average age of 52.5. Patients with brucellar vertebral VO (BVO; n = 30) accounted for 37.5% of all patients, and the rest (n = 50) were with NBVO. Co-morbidities existed in 32.5% of patients. In statistical comparison of VO patients who had the Brucella spp. as the infectious agent with patients of VO by non-brucellar pathogens, the following factors were found out to be significantly associated with BVO; low Charlson score (P = 0.0001), lower co-incidence with chronic renal failure (P = 0.001), high frequency of constitutional symptoms (P = 0.006), fever (P = 0.005), low-level inflammatory markers (WBC; Neutrophil; ESR; CRP, P values 0.006; 0.001; 0.022; 0.002, respectively), low-rate surgical treatment (P = 0.02) and culture positivity (P = 0.0001) and higher hemoglobin, total protein, albumin values (P = 0.002; 0.032; 0.016, respectively). VO may be strongly associated with brucellosis in patients presenting with fever and symptoms, low Charlson score and indistinct inflammatory markers.
authors: Department of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey. sahinelif@gmail.com
authors: Elif Sahin
authors: ES
authors: Horasan
authors: Mehmet
authors: M
authors: Colak
authors: Gülden
authors: G
authors: Ersöz
authors: Mustafa
authors: M
authors: Uğuz
authors: Ali
authors: A
authors: Kaya
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002002:Brucella / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002006:Brucellosis / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010019:Osteomyelitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000601:surgery; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013131:Spine / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000601:surgery; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000150:complications; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000150:complications
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents