Table 2.
Imaging findings and complications of patients in the neurotuberculosis cohort.
| Intraspinal Neurotuberculosis | n = 103 (%) | Intracranial Neurotuberculosis | n = 82 (%) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imaging Findings | Lancet Score | ||||||
| Spondylodiscitis (SD) | 101 (98.1) | Definitive meningeal tuberculosis or Lancet I a | 41 (50.0) | ||||
| Regional distribution of vertebral involvement | Probable meningeal tuberculosis or Lancet II | 28 (34.1) | |||||
| Cervical | 5/102 (4.9) | Possible meningeal tuberculosis or Lancet III | 13 (15.9) | ||||
| Dorsal | 29/102 (28.4) | ||||||
| Dorso-lumbar | 4/102 (3.9) | ||||||
| Lumbar | 25/102 (24.5) | ||||||
| Lumbo-sacral | 8/102 (7.8) | ||||||
| Multilevel involvement | 31/102 (30.4) | Meningeal tuberculosis severity grades MRC b | |||||
| Number of levels involved intraspinal neuroTB | Grade I meningitis | 7 (8.9) | |||||
| 1 level involved | 70/102 (68.6) | Grade II meningitis | 43 (54.4) | ||||
| 2 level involved | 16/102 (15.7) | Grade III meningitis | 29 (36.7) | ||||
| ≥3 levels involved | 16/102 (15.7) | ||||||
| Contiguous multilevel involvement | 27/102 (26.5) | ||||||
| Non-contiguous multilevel segments/skipped lesion | 10/102 (9.8) | ||||||
| Pattern of vertebral involvement | |||||||
| Paradiscal | 101/102 (99.0) | Imaging findings and/or complications | |||||
| Central (C7 to T3/L5) | 1/102 (1.0) | Tuberculomas without meningitis or normal CSF | 3 (3.7) | ||||
| Appendiceal | 5/102 (4.9) | Meningitis (M) + tuberculomas | 34 (41.5) | ||||
| Complications and/or findings on admission | M + cranial neuropathy | 33 (40.2) | |||||
| Motor deficit | 103 (100.0) | Cranial nerve palsy II | 5/33 (15.2) | ||||
| Spinal instability | 95/101 (94.1) | Cranial nerve palsy III | 11/33 (33.3) | ||||
| Pre/paravertebral abscess | 86/102 (84.3) | Cranial nerve palsy IV | 4/33 (12.1) | ||||
| Vertebral destruction | 80/102 (78.4) | Cranial nerve palsy VI | 17/33 (51.5) | ||||
| Epidural abscess | 79/102 (77.5) | Cranial nerve palsy VII | 10/33 (30.3) | ||||
| Myelopathy | 71/102 (69.6) | M + hydrocephalus | 26 (31.7) | ||||
| Destruction as vertebra plana | 38/102 (37.3) | M + hydrocephalus + VPS | 20/26 (76.9) | ||||
| Psoas abscess | 33/102 (32.4) | Leptomeningitis | 16 (19.5) | ||||
| Destruction of vertebral bodies ≥ 2 levels involved | 36/102 (35.3) | Optochiasmatic arachnoiditis | 1/16 (6.3) | ||||
| Destruction of vertebral bodies ≥ 3 levels involved | 20/102 (19.6) | M + cerebral infarction | 13 (15.9) | ||||
| No. of levels with vertebral destruction, median (IQR), range | 0 (0–1), (0–8) | M + hydrocephalus + tuberculomas | 9 (11.0) | ||||
| No. of destroyed vertebrae, median (IQR), range | 2 (1–2), (0–16) | M + cerebral infarction + hydrocephalus | 6 (7.3) | ||||
| Wedge fracture | 28/102 (27.5) | M + tuberculous abscess | 1 (1.2) | ||||
| Kyphosis | 25/99 (25.3) | ||||||
| Anterior or posterior longitudinal ligament involvement | 15/101 (14.9) | Spinal arachnoiditis | 5 (6.1) | ||||
| Intraosseous abscesses | 11/102 (10.8) | ||||||
| Complete spinal cord syndrome | 5 (4.9) | ||||||
| Spinal arachnoiditis | 4/102 (3.9) | ||||||
| Intramedullary tuberculoma | 1 (1.0) | ||||||
a Lancet: Score to support the diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis (Marais et al., 2010) [13]. b MRC: Severity on admission was graded according to the Medical Research Council criteria. IQR: Interquartile range. CSF: Cerebrospinal fluid. VPS: Ventriculo-peritoneal shunt.