Disseminated tuberculosis in HIV-infected person. Diagnostic and therapeutic challenges – case report

SummaryA report of a rare case of disseminated tuberculosis (lungs, lymph nodes, gastrointestinal tract and vertebral column) in an HIV-infected woman effectively treated with anti-tuberculous drugs complete with HAART, whose therapy was complicated by liver failure and whose definite diagnosis of tuberculous inflamation of the spine was difficult to establish due to unusual lesions observed in the MR images. The long and complex diagnostic process was not only hampered by the patient's poor clinical status, complicated by other opportunistic infections (OI), but also by the patient's non-compliance, which triggered the relapse of tuberculosis.The main object of the report is to highlight some of the less known atypical features of spinal tuberculosis (TB) in the hope of facilitating early diagnosis.