Brucellosis is a zoonosis that affects several organs and has a protean presentation. The authors report the case of a 61-year-old male patient with brucellar spondylodiscitis involving several vertebrae and a paravertebral abscess localized in the erector spinae muscle. Diagnosis was made by positive blood culture and MRI. No relapse was seen with a combined treatment (doxycycline/rifampin) for 3 months, followed by doxycycline alone for 6 months. Almost all radiologic findings disappeared at the end of a 1-year follow-up without any further treatment.

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In this prospective study, we investigated the serum levels of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and C-reactive protein (CRP) before and after the treatment of patients with acute brucellosis. The study comprised 58 patients with acute brucellosis and 30 healthy volunteers. Pre-treatment serum HGF levels of 58 patients with acute brucellosis (1548.6 +/- 220.1) were significantly higher than levels of the control group (401.4 +/- 69.7) (p < 0.001). Serum levels of HGF and CRP significantly decreased at the end of the treatment period (p < 0.001). Post treatment, levels did not differ from those of the control group (p > 0.05). Serum HGF levels of patients with acute brucellosis correlated to CRP and ALT levels (r: 0.922, 0.752; p < 0.001, respectively). Our findings suggest that serum HGF levels may be used as a supplementary marker to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment in patients with acute brucellosis.