Spinal tuberculosis: a diagnostic problem.

Fourteen patients with spinal tuberculosis were treated in one orthopaedic practice in Vancouver between 1982 and 1987. There was a significant delay in diagnosis of over one year in almost two-thirds of patients. Diagnosis of spinal tuberculosis is often difficult. In this study, half the subjects had a history of TB, but a significant number had negatives skin tests, almost half had normal chest X-rays, and half of them had negative needle biopsies.