Abstract

A prospective study to determine the value of C-reactive protein concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid to differentiate between acute bacterial, partially treated bacterial, aseptic & tubercular meningitis was performed in 51 consecutively observed patients (children), who underwent lumbar puncture due to suspected infective meningitis. Diagnosis included acute or presumed bacterial meningitis (n=11), acute or presumed viral meningitis (n=13), partially treated bacterial meningitis (n=6), tubercular meningitis (n=2) and control group (n=19).The sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and optimum cut-off levels of C-RP in CSF were determined to diagnose these various types of infective meningitis. Determination of C-RP in CSF is a useful additional test on CSF examination in distinguishing between bacterial and aseptic meningitis. CSF-CRP levels>1.3mg/dl is highly suggestive of acute bacterial meningitis.