
30-ish woman comes into clinic yesterday with complaints of chronic back pain. She's been sent on referral from an outside health clinic, where she's been haunting them for months with her mid-back pain and swelling.
She states she has occasional fevers and chills, but no weight loss. Denies cough. Pain is excruciating. On my exam I see an average-height slender woman of typical PNG'ian build. She stands and sits with shoulders hunched forward in an "old-lady" type of posture.

Lungs are diffusely pretty clear, limited mainly by the congenital inability of patients around here to understand
take a deep breath. Back has a notable kyphosis (that's a forward curvature, for the non-medical folks) and consequent arching of the ribs - the "swelling" described by my medical triage personnel is actually just her ribs winging out from her kyphosis.
I send her for X-rays, and today she brought them back to me. They're on the left - chest and thoracic spine. Click for larger images. What does she have?
I'm guessing TB.
ReplyDeleteBased on the TV show House, anything and everything might be lupus!
ReplyDeleteHow about osteoporotic kyphosis? You're gonna tell us.... right?
ReplyDeleteIn the US, I'd go for sarcoid. In PNG, I'd also guess TB.
ReplyDelete