Tuberculosis of the spine (Pott's disease) presenting as 'compression fractures'.

Study Design: Case reports and survey of literature.

Objective: Case reports of two women with tuberculosis (TB) of the spine (Pott's disease) presenting with severe back pain and diagnosed as compression fracture are described. Physicians should include Pott's disease in the differential diagnosis when patients present with severe back pain and evidence of vertebral collapse.

Group B streptococcal bacteremia in nonpregnant adults at a community teaching hospital.

Background: Group B streptococcal bacteremia in nonpregnant adults continues to be a significant infection.

Methods: We reviewed medical records of nonpregnant adult patients with group B streptococcal bacteremia from 1995 to 1999 and compared the findings with data from a similar study in our institution between 1980 and 1984.

Results: There were 36 episodes of group B streptococcal bacteremia.

Pneumococcal bacteremia associated with an infected central venous catheter.

Pneumococcus (Streptococcus pneumoniae) bacteremia is a serious infection. Pneumococcus has never been implicated as a cause of a central venous catheter-related bacteremia. It has been isolated from the catheter tip only twice before, and in one case caused the infection of an infusion port device.

Lady Windermere syndrome: middle lobe bronchiectasis and Mycobacterium avium complex infection due to voluntary cough suppression.

An 81-year-old woman who presented with middle lobe bronchiectasis and Mycobacterium avium complex infection is described. She had a history of habitual suppression of cough, as in Lady Windermere syndrome. She was thin and had mild kyphoscoliosis but had no history of smoking or connective tissue disease.