Mohammad Nadeem, Mohammad Sarfraz Alam, Mimpal Singh.
Role of CSF-CRP in Diagnosis of Acute Bacterial and Aseptic Meningitis in Children.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;12(2):720-3.

Background: In children bacterial meningitis is one the significant cause of mortality and morbidity in developed and underdeveloped countries. Patients with suspected bacterial meningitis need an emergency medical care but due to delayed and improper diagnosis there is high risk of poor prognosis. With early and effective diagnosis of the condition prognosis of disease can be improved. Aim: To determine the role of cerebrospinal fluid C-reactive protein in diagnosis of acute bacterial meningitis in children and to compare the cerebrospinal fluid C-reactive protein in cases of bacterial and aseptic meningitis. Methods: This cross sectional study was designed at the Department of Paeds Medicine, KEMU/Mayo Hospital Lahore. Using non-probability sampling we took a sample of 184 patients (92 patients in each group). After obtaining written consent, lumbar puncture was done under aseptic measures according to the standard protocol. Cerebrospinal fluid was examined by bacteriology laboratory of the Department of Paediatrics, Mayo Hospital Lahore. C-reactive protein was measured in cerebrospinal fluid by quantitative latex agglutination method. Results: The mean age of patients in bacterial meningitis group was 27.09+-35.39 months and in aseptic meningitis were 29.27+-37.73 months. There were 108 (58. 70%) males and 76(31.30%) females in this study. The cerebrospinal fluid C-reactive protein findings were positive in 87(94.6%) patients in bacterial group and only 6 (6.5%) in aseptic group. There was highly significant association of the cerebrospinal fluid C-reactive protein findings with clinical bacterial meningitis (p-value<0.001). The mean positive cerebrospinal fluid C-reactive protein in bacterial meningitis was 35.18+-23.11 and in aseptic meningitis 6.77+-11.37. Conclusion: Through this study we found that cerebrospinal fluid C-reactive protein can diagnose acute bacterial meningitis where culture is not possible or feasible.

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