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Twenty-one patients with spinal brucellosis were reviewed. The disease is difficult to diagnose, and is often confused with spinal tuberculosis. Our study showed that it was best diagnosed by serology 2nd bacterial culture; radiography and scanning were less helpful in the early stages. After only six weeks' antibiotic treatment, there was a 55% clinical and serological reactivation rate: better results were achieved after at least three months of treatment. The adequacy of treatment was best monitored with repeated agglutination titres, and the duration of freatment proved to be more important than the antibiotic agent itself. Surgical intervention was reserved for biopsy, severe neurological impairment, or for spinal stabilisation. Brucellosis remains a serious infectious disease and an important cause of morbidity in both animals and man.

The sonographic appearance of echinococcal lesions of the liver was studied in 59 patients. We have proposed a classification of these lesions that reflects the pathology and natural history of the disease: type I, simple fluid-filled cysts; type IR, lesions containing undulated membranes that represent detached endocyst secondary to rupture; type II, lesions that contain daughter cysts and/or a formed echogenic material we call matrix; and type III, dead, densely calcified lesions. The natural progression of hepatic echinococcal cysts is from type I to type III. Daughter cyst formation is part of the natural aging process. When hydatid cysts are infected, they lose their characteristic sonographic appearance and become diffusely hyperechoic.

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