title: [The importance of immune deficiency for the prognosis of purulent meningitis (author's transl)].
abstract: Morbidity and mortality of suppurative bacterial meningitis show a very constant behavior over many decades. The introduction of antibiotics certainly lowered the lethality considerably, but since then it has remained fairly unchanged at about 15-20%. However, in the principal groups of pathogens--meningococci, pneumococci, Haemophilus influenzae--antibiotic resistence plays no special role. The significance of disorders of defense against infections for the course of the disease has not yet been investigated. Of 92 children examined with purulent meningitis, 49 showed a selective antibody deficiency syndrome against bacterial antigens, 38 of 48 children investigated showed further disorders of bactericidal activity. The proportion of these disorders is particularly high in children with defective healing of a meningitis.
mesh_terms: D001317:Austria; D001770:Blood Bactericidal Activity; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D007153:Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes / Q000150:complications*; D008585:Meningitis, Meningococcal / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D011379:Prognosis
vernacular_title: Bedeutung von Immundefekten für die Prognose der eitrigen Meningitis