An unusual cause of back pain

doi:10.1136/bmj.a3183

Published 28 January 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.a3183
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:a3183

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An unusual cause of back pain

I Davagnanam, fellow in neuroradiology¹, S Harave, specialist registrar in radiology²

¹ Department of Neuroradiology, Kings College Hospital, London SE5 9RS , ² Department of Radiology, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth PO6 3LY

Correspondence to: I Davagnanam Indran_davagnanam@yahoo.co.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A 26 year old man with no relevant medical history presentedto his general practitioner with an 18 month history of progressivechronic back pain. He had difficulty walking long distances,with progressive pain and weakness in his legs, and had experiencederectile dysfunction in recent months. He was referred to aneuroscience centre for further evaluation, which confirmedthe clinical findings and documented a clinical loss of perianalsensation.

His body mass index was 29.8 (normal range: 18.50-24.99). Hewas not on exogenous steroids and had no clinical signs or symptomsof Cushing’s disease.

Magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbar spine was performed(figs 1 and 2).