Clinical features of brucellosis complicated with osteoarticular damage / 中华地方病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the clinical features of osteoarticular damage of patients with brucellosis,and to enhance the knowledge of clinical doctors.Methods The demographic characteristics,clinical presentations,accessory examination of 265 patients with brucellosis admitted from January 2011 to April 2014 in Ji'nan Infectious Diseases Hospital were retrospectively analyzed.Patients were classified into two groupsPatients with osteoarticular complications and patients without osteoarticular complications.Results Of the 265 patients,forty-six patients (17.36％) had osteoarticular complications.Spondylitis was the most common complication [50.00％ (23/46)],followed by sacroiliitis [41.30％ (19/46)] and peripheral arthritis [26.09％ (12/46)].Sacroiliitis was more common than other types of osteoarticular damage in females [21.74％ (10/46)],whereas in males spondylitis was more common [36.96％ (17/46)].Peripheral arthritis was more common in individuals under the age of 17 years old [4.35％ (2/46)],and sacroiliitis were more common in the ages of 18-60 years old group [23.91％(11/46)] and spondylitis were more common in over 60-year age group [30.43％ (14/46)].Patients with osteoarticular complications showed longer duration of illness from the onset of the symptoms to its diagnosis (median 45 days),compared to those non-osteoarticular brucellosis (median 30 days,Z =5.74,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Due to diversity of osteoarticular damage in patients with brucellosis,in case of a patient with long-term fever and osteoarticular symptoms,medical and epidemiological history should be inquired so as to strengthen early diagnosis and treatment of the disease based on combination with radiological findings.