title: [Laboratory and clinical variables in the differential diagnosis of aseptic and pyogenic meningitis in children].
abstract: We reviewed the charts of 573 children with a final diagnosis of pyogenic or aseptic meningitis, who were hospitalized in a large reference hospital for the treatment of infectious disease, from January 1990 to December 1992. Seizures, decreased consciousness, nuchal rigidity were more frequent in bacterial than in aseptic meningitis. A cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) glucose level lower than 45 mg/dL, a protein level equal or greater than 140 mg/dL and cell count greater than 600/mm3 were predictors of pyogenic meningitis. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to assess the best point in CSF measures of leukocytes, glucose and protein that could predict bacterial meningitis. These results suggest that clinicians should differentiate bacterial from aseptic meningitis in children with greater accuracy utilizing only clinical and simple CSF data.
authors.affiliation: Unidade de Neuroepidemiologia e Neuroinfectologia, Hospital Couto Maia, Salvador BA, Brasil.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lucena
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Melo
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008582:Meningitis, Aseptic / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016920:Meningitis, Bacterial / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
vernacular_title: Variáveis clínicas e laboratoriais para o diagnóstico diferencial entre meningites Asséptica e piogênica em crianças.