TO THE ISSUE OF EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF BACTERIAL MENINGITIS

Abstract

Introduction. The outcome of bacterial (purulent) meningitis depends on the timely initiation of antibiotic therapy,
therefore it is important to immediately distinguish purulent meningitis from aseptic and begin empirical antibiotic therapy.
Often, hospitalization of patients with meningitis in a specialized hospital is delayed due to the fact that at the prehospital
stage such diagnoses as ARVI, stroke, epilepsy, head injury and others are established. This article addresses the issue of
early diagnosis of bacterial meningitis. We offer a checklist, using which you can suspect the presence of bacterial
meningitis in the patient on time.
Objective: to identify significant signs for the early diagnosis of bacterial meningitis according to the clinic, lumbar
puncture and blood tests.
Materials and methods. A retrospective analysis of 32 cases of patients with bacterial and aseptic meningitis,
Microsoft Office Excel 2016 (Microsoft, USA) and Statistica 10 (StatSoftInc., USA)
Results. During the work we revealed the most significant distinguishing signs of purulent meningitis from aseptic
meningitis: impaired consciousness, blood leukocyte level> 10x10⁹ cell / l, cerebrospinal fluid cytosis> 150 cell / μl, the
number of neutrophils in cerebrospinal fluid> 30% (p <0.05).
Conclusions: Diagnosis of bacterial meningitis should be carried out comprehensively. Examination of the patient and
a minimum set of laboratory tests (cytosis of cerebrospinal fluid, the number of neutrophils in the cerebrospinal fluid, white
blood cells) are quite sufficient to assess the risk of bacterial meningitis and, therefore, the appointment of antibiotic
therapy as soon as possible.