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CASE REPORT article

Front. Med.
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Pathogenesis and Therapy
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1507511

Tuberculosis Menace: A Case Report of Disseminated Tuberculosis Presenting as Tubercular Meningitis and Long Segment Cervical Tuberculous Myelitis in a 32 Year Old Male of Rural India

Provisionally accepted
Saket S. Toshniwal Saket S. Toshniwal 1*Jiwan S. Kinkar Jiwan S. Kinkar 2Amit Toshniwal Amit Toshniwal 3Anshul Sood Anshul Sood 4Sunil Kumar Sunil Kumar 1Sourya Acharya Sourya Acharya 1
  • 1 General Medicine, Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research, Wardha, Maharashtra, India
  • 2 Neurology, Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research, Wardha, Maharashtra, India
  • 3 Respiratory Medicine, Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research, Wardha, Maharashtra, India
  • 4 Radiology, Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research, Wardha, Maharashtra, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This case report discusses an uncommon presentation of miliary tuberculosis as tubercular meningitis and long segment cervical tuberculous myelitis in a 32 years old male from rural India. The patient presented with symptoms of fever, headache, neck stiffness, and gradual weakness of all four limbs. Hydrocephalic changes secondary to meningitis and involvement of the spinal cord was noted on neuroimaging and correlated with clinical findings of cervical myelitis confirming the diagnosis of tuberculous (TB) meningitis with cervical myelitis.Tubercular meningitis together with cervical myelitis in patients with miliary tuberculosis (TB) is a rare manifestation also in tubercular endemic areas like India. Confirmation of diagnosis and start point of anti-tubercular therapy (ATT) is critical to help avoid neurological complications. On such a backdrop , the present case underlines the reason to suspect TB in patients with a neurological manifestation that is not characteristic for most common diseases. This report also puts stress on raising the awareness and investment in better management of tuberculosis in rural contexts where there are few opportunities to access tertiary centres.

    Keywords: Tuberculosis, Myelitis, Meningitis, Disseminated, miliary, Hydrocephalus

    Received: 07 Oct 2024; Accepted: 02 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Toshniwal, Kinkar, Toshniwal, Sood, Kumar and Acharya. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Saket S. Toshniwal, General Medicine, Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research, Wardha, 442107, Maharashtra, India

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