Journal of clinical and diagnostic research : JCDR
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Tuberculosis is the commonest of the infections world wide and it can affect almost any part of the body, most commonly the thorax. The spine is affected in 50 % of the cases of skeletal tuberculosis. A tuberculous infection of the spine causes a bony destruction and collapse of the vertebrae, with a gibbus deformity, skip lesions, an intervertebral disc involvement, an epidural abscess, a paravertebral abscess and oedema in the soft tissue planes. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is the most valuable investigation in the patients with spinal tuberculosis, as it can clearly demonstrate all of the above findings. ⋯ The MRI scan is highly sensitive in the detection of various pathological processes of Pott's spine and the patterns of occurrence of these findings were analyzed in this study. Since the incidence and prevalence of tuberculosis are dependent on various epidemiologically sensitive parameters, this study can provide a benchmark, against which the results of studies which will be done in the future can be compared.