Association of Clinical Pathologists Irish Branch: Autumn Meeting

Rapid and accurate diagnosis is crucial for effective treatment of bacterial meningitis. Bacteriological culture of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood is still the single most important laboratory investigation which is carried out. However, in some cases, bacteriological culture is unable to detect any causative organisms. This may be due to a number of reasons such as prior antibiotic therapy or, the causative agent may be extremely fastidious.