Specific characteristics of epidemiology and clinical manifestations of tuberculosis spondylitis in Ulyanovsk Region

The objective: to study specific characteristics of epidemiology and clinical manifestations of tuberculosis spondylitis in Ulyanovsk Region.Subjects and methods: Annual reports of the regional TB dispensary and medical records of all 160 tuberculosis spondylitis patients detected 2009 to 2018 were reviewed. Radiation, laboratory, bacteriological, immunological, molecular genetic, and morphological diagnostic methods were used. Reliability was assessed using the software of Statistica 8.0: in the frequency of events according to χ2, and in the median values according to the discrepancy test.Results. It was found out that the incidence of tuberculosis spondylitis and its share in the structure of newly detected extrapulmonary forms had increased; tuberculosis spondylitis had specific symptoms such as the severe course with destruction of the vertebral bodies, leaky abscesses, neurological disorders with moderate intoxication; the main pathogenetic mechanism was the activation of foci of the primary period of tuberculosis infection in vertebral bodies, which was facilitated by HIV infection, chronic viral hepatitis, alcohol, and drug addiction.