Acute brucella sacroiliitis: Clinical features

Although back pain is very common, the differential diagnosis may sometimes be very difficult. Both inflammation and infections of spinal or sacroilia c joints are examples of such causes. We report three cases of brucella sac roiliitis resembling acute low back pain or lumbar disc herniation. All pat ients had had a recent infection and were referred complaining of acute bac k pain with a suspicion of lumbar disc herniation. The complaints of all pa tients reduced dramatically after proper medication. Radiographs of all pat ients and bone scans of two patients revealed sacroiliitis. One of the pati ents was positive for HLA-B27; in the other two patients HLA-B27 could not be determined.