title: [Tuberculous meningitis: prognostic aspects of 22 microbiologically confirmed cases].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Tuberculous meningitis continues to be a severe disease difficult to diagnose within a reasonable time carrying a high morbimortality.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective review of cases of microbiologically confirmed tuberculous meningitis diagnosed and treated in the authors' institution is presented.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From 1974-1993, 22 patients (12 males and 10 females, mean age of 31.5 years; range: 4 months and 77 years) were studied. Eighteen patients (81%) presented extrameningeal tuberculosis. Seven (31.8%) died and 6 (27.3%) presented severe neurologic sequelae. The worst prognosis was observed in patients older than the mean (p = 0.03), worse neurologic situation on admittance (p = 0.03) and hydrocephaly diagnosed by imaging techniques (p = 0.04). Corticoids were administered in 15 patients (68%) without contributing comparatively to better disease prognosis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The authors consider that the initiation of specific early treatment in justified while awaiting microbiologic confirmation of the disease.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Microbiología Clínica, Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Esteban
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Fernández-Guerrero
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Soriano
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014390:Tuberculosis, Meningeal / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology
vernacular_title: Meningitis tuberculosa: aspectos pronósticos de 22 casos con confirmación microbiológica.