Excerpt
To the Editor:
A 53-year-old woman was referred to the rheumatology service after presenting to a local medical unit with severe low back pain, fever, and malaise. She had been discharged from a surgical unit 2 weeks previously, where she had been investigated for low back pain, pyrexia, and urinary symptoms. She had undergone a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of her lumbar spine that had shown only degenerative changes with no nerve root or cord lesion. C-reactive protein (CRP) had been elevated at 122 mg/l and urine culture was positive for coliforms. She was treated with oral antibiotics and…