Meningitis is among the 10 commonest infectious causes of death worldwide. This retrospective analysis of reported cases of meningitis in Bahrain aimed to assess the trend in the incidence of bacterial meningitis from 1990 to 2013, before and after the introduction of new vaccines. Of 1455 reported cases of meningitis during the study period 73.1% were viral and 26.9% were bacterial etiology (t...

Gas liquid chromatography was employed to detect lactic acid in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients suspected of having bacterial meningitis. The technique was found to be both rapid and reliable. Differentiation between aseptic, purulent, and partially treated bacterial meningitis was readily achieved. The effectiveness of therapy in bacterial meningitis was indicated by a rapid fall in the co...

which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Editorial Procalcitonin (PCT) levels increase in inflammatory states following infection, tumor, burn, trauma, or surgery [1]. Many clinical studies have found that PCT levels significantly increase in patients with bacterial or fungal infection [2, 3]. Conv...

BACKGROUND Bacterial meningitis remains a source of substantial morbidity and mortality in childhood. During the last decades gradual changes have been observed in the epidemiology of bacterial meningitis, related to the introduction of new polysaccharide and conjugate vaccines. The study presents an overview of the epidemiological patterns of acute bacterial meningitis in a tertiary children '...

BACKGROUND Bacterial meningitis is challenging to diagnose in infants, especially in the common setting of antibiotic pre-treatment, which diminishes yield of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cultures. Prior studies of diagnostic markers have not demonstrated sufficient accuracy. Interleukin-23 (IL-23), interleukin-18 (IL-18) and soluble receptor for advanced glycation end products (sRAGE) possess bio...

Bacterial meningitis is a life-threatening infectious disease with high mortality and disability rates, despite availability of antibiotics and adjunctive therapy with dexamethasone. Several risk factors and predisposing conditions have been identified that increase susceptibility for bacterial meningitis. Such risk factors can consist of medical conditions resulting in immunodeficiency, host g...

INTRODUCTION Bacterial meningitis persists in being a substantial cause of high mortality and severe neurological morbidity, despite the advances in antimicrobial therapy. Accurate data has not been available regarding the epidemiology of bacterial meningitis particularly in developing countries, yet. Indeed, the present systematic review provides a comprehensive data analysis on the prevalence...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate Bacterial Meningitis Score (BMS) on its own and in association with Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) lactate dosage in order to distinguish bacterial from aseptic meningitis. METHODS Children diagnosed with meningitis at a tertiary hospital between January/2011 and December/2014 were selected. All data were obtained upon admission. BMS was applied and included: CSF Gram stainin...

We used broad-range bacterial PCR combined with DNA sequencing to examine prospectively cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from patients with suspected meningitis. Fifty-six CSF samples from 46 patients were studied during the year 1995. Genes coding for bacterial 16S and/or 23S rRNA genes could be amplified from the CSF samples from five patients with a clinical picture consistent with acute ba...

BACKGROUND Endocarditis may precede or complicate bacterial meningitis, but the incidence and impact of endocarditis in bacterial meningitis are unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS We assessed the incidence and clinical characteristics of patients with meningitis and endocarditis from a nationwide cohort study of adults with community-acquired bacterial meningitis in the Netherlands from 2006 to 201...