[Radiologic diagnosis of osteoarticular tuberculosis and borderline skeletal diseases]

A total of 3305 ill children and adults treated for skeletal diseases and lesions underwent primary and follow-up radiation studies. Patients with spinal diseases amounted to 72%, of them 58% were found to have neurological diseases, 28% had articular diseases. The examination of patients involved X-ray tomography, contrast myelotomography, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. Surgical and laboratory verifications of the diagnosis were made in 53% of adults and 78.5% of children. It is shown that there are difficulties in diagnosing and differentiating osteoarticular tuberculosis at present and X-ray tomography and contrast myelography are essential in diagnosing spinal diseases. Indications for computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, osteoscintigraphy and the sequence of their use in the diagnosis of diseases were defined. The paper emphasizes that an osteoarticulogist's assessment of complex data of radiation diagnosis is very important.