Dexamethasone decreases cerebrospinal fluid soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 levels in bacterial meningitis.
It is known that the use of adjunctive dexamethasone in bacterial meningitis reduces audiologic and neurologic sequelae. The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) level of soluble tumor necrosis factor 1 (sTNFR1) is an important indicator of neurologic sequelae in bacterial meningitis. We measured the CSF levels of IL-6 and sTNFR1 before administration of antibiotics (CSF1) and 1-3 days after administration of antibiotics (CSF2) in nine patients with bacterial meningitis who received dexamethasone sodium and five without dexamethasone. The CSF2 IL-6 levels of patients with/without dexamethasone were significantly lower than for CSF1 IL-6 levels (p = 0.0077, and p = 0.0431, respectively). There were no significant differences of the ratio of CSF2/CSF1 IL-6 levels between patients with dexamethasone and those without dexamethasone. CSF2 sTNFR1 levels of patients with dexamethasone were significantly lower than for CSF1 sTNFR1 levels (p = 0.0208). However, CSF2 sTNFR1 levels of patients without dexamethasone were significantly higher than for CSF1 sTNFR1 levels (p = 0.0422). The ratio of CSF2/CSF1 sTNFR1 levels of patients with dexamethasone was significantly lower than that without dexamethasone (p = 0.0063). Our present study suggests that dexamethasone inhibits increase of CSF sTNFR1 levels after antibiotics therapy in bacterial meningitis.
Department of Pediatrics, Yamaguchi University School of Medicine, Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan. ichiyama@yamaguchi-u.ac.jp
Takashi
T
Ichiyama
Takeshi
T
Matsushige
Madoka
M
Kajimoto
Kiyoko
K
Tomochika
Tomoyo
T
Matsubara
Susumu
S
Furukawa
D000293:Adolescent; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D008297:Male; D016920:Meningitis, Bacterial / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D047888:Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor, Type I / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents; D015850:Interleukin-6; D047888:Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor, Type I; D003907:Dexamethasone