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Query: UMLS:C0085437 (bacterial meningitis)
 4,038 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Inflammatory response plays an important role in the pathogenesis of cerebral injury in bacterial meningitis. In this study, we evaluated the cytokine levels of interleukin 1-beta (IL1 beta), tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) and interleukin 6 (IL6) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and determined their correlation with acute clinical complications and with changes in CSF biochemistry. Interleukin 6, TNF alpha and IL1 beta were present in 9/9, 3/9 and 4/9 patients, respectively. The CSFs with detectable TNF alpha or IL1 beta had higher levels of IL6 (p < 0.02), protein (NS) and lower glucose levels (p < 0.02), compared with those in which TNF alpha and IL1 beta were absent. Tumour necrosis factor alpha and IL1 beta levels also correlated with the presence of prolonged fever, fits, spasticity and death (logTNF alpha: r = 0.70, p < 0.05; logIL1 beta: r = 0.62, p = 0.08). The cytokine levels reflect the degree of inflammatory response and are positively correlated with the severity of acute clinical complications. Modulation of this inflammatory response in bacterial meningitis may improve its morbidity and mortality.
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PMID:Inflammatory response in bacterial meningitis: cytokine levels in the cerebrospinal fluid. 759 38

During the period January 1980 to December 1990 (11 years) a retrospective study of patients with bacterial meningitis who were admitted to Bangkok Children's Hospital was carried out. There were 618 patients with 77 cases (12.5%) occurring below the age of one month (neonatal meningitis), and 541 cases (87.5%) between one month to 15 years (childhood meningitis). Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the most common pathogenic organism (16.9%) in neonatal meningitis; other causative agents in this age group included Klebsiella pneumoniae (13.0%), group B Streptococcus (11.7%), Escherichia coli and Enterobacter sp (10.4% each). In childhood meningitis, Haemophilus influenzae was the most common causative organism (42.3%), and followed by Streptococcus pneumoniae (22.2%) and Salmonella sp (12.4%). Excluding a 13 year-old leukemic patient, Salmonella meningitis occurred exclusively in infants, 87% of them were under six months, and 13% of them developed relapsing meningitis. Presenting symptoms and signs on admission of neonatal meningitis such as fever (81.8%), convulsions (45.4%), neck stiffness (22.5%), bulging fontanelle (33.3%) and Brudzinski sign (11.5%) were significantly less frequent than in the patients beyond the neonatal period (p < 0.05). The overall fatalities during 1980-1990 were 45.4% and 17.3% for neonatal meningitis and childhood meningitis, respectively. The fatalities of the two age groups declined significantly during 1987-1990 to 26.3% and 11.4% respectively.
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PMID:Bacterial meningitis in children: etiology and clinical features, an 11-year review of 618 cases. 782 99

Bacterial meningitis has special clinical features in the newborn infant. Major complications and sequelae result from the infectious involvement of the CNS in the majority of these children. We studied 109 newborn infants with bacterial meningitis accompanied from January 1977 to April 1987. The mortality rate was 34.8%. Perinatal risk factors were not found. The majority (80.5%) were term newborn infants. The main signs at admission were convulsion (53.2%), bulging fontanel (37.6%) and apnea (20.2%), and the main symptoms were neurosensorial depression (64.2%), nursing refuse (64.2%), fever (50.5%) and irritability (35.8%). Complications during hospitalization were ventriculitis (34.9%), inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion syndrome (27.5%), subdural collection (8.3%), brain abscess (4.6%) and brain infarction (2.8%). Inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion syndrome and ventriculitis were closely associated with high mortality. Seventy one children survived: 44 (62%) had gross abnormalities at the neurologic examination, and 29 (40.8%) developed hydrocephalus. Neurological follow-up of these children is important. Prognostic can change along the course of long time follow-up.
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PMID:[Bacterial meningitis in the neonatal period. Clinical evaluation and complications in 109 cases]. 821 34

Of 92 school-age children who had convulsions with fever (CWF) of acute onset, seen in a 1-year period in an emergency room in Benin City, Nigeria, 49 per cent had malaria parasitaemia, 15 per cent bacterial meningitis, 8 per cent focal extracranial infections, and 1 per cent bacteraemia while 27 per cent had acute fever of undetermined origin. The prevalence of meningitis increased with presence of temperature > or = 40 degrees C (P < 0.01), focal seizures (P < 0.05), and rousable coma (P < 0.05). Bacterial meningitis is an important illness in school-age children with CWF, although malaria parasitaemia is the commonest infection.
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PMID:Convulsions with fever of acute onset in school-age children in Benin City, Nigeria. 827 42

Sixty-six (19.4%) of 341 acutely ill infants and children (> 1 mo-15 yr old) who had a lumbar puncture (LP) done during an inter-epidemic period had bacterial meningitis (BM). No clinical feature was sufficiently characteristic of the presence of BM. Twenty (30.3%) of the 66 patients with BM lacked typical signs of meningitis at the time of diagnosis whereas 61 (22.2%) of the 275 with other illnesses had signs. Three (4.6%) of the 66 patients with BM were discharged against medical advice, 31 (47%) survived intact and 16 (24.2%) each died or survived with sequelae. Case fatality rate was significantly higher in children with coma, focal extracranial infections, delayed diagnosis of BM after admission, irregular administration of antibiotic drugs and treatment with dexamethasone. Among survivors, sequelae rate was significantly higher in children with delayed presentation, convulsions, coma, and prolonged hospitalisation (> 10 days); sequelae rate in patients with convulsions was significantly higher in those with complex convulsions and convulsions occurring after 24 hours of treatment. Irregular provision of drugs by parents and delay in the diagnosis of BM after admission are emergent factors which, in addition to the well known factors of malnutrition and delayed presentation, further worsen the prognosis of BM. A more liberal policy in the use of LPs in acutely ill children is advocated to reduce the risk of missed diagnosis.
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PMID:Presentation and outcome of sporadic acute bacterial meningitis in children in the African meningitis belt: recent experience from northern Nigeria highlighting emergent factors in outcome. 863 27

An analysis of hospital admissions in two areas of Nigeria indicates that the burden of coma/convulsions with fever and malaria is higher in the rainforest region whereas that of bacterial meningitis (BM) and focal extracranial infection (FEI), mainly acute respiratory infections, is higher in the arid region. The burden of malaria has increased and chloroquine-resistant malaria has become a problem in clinical practice. There is the need to revise the current policy of initiation of treatment with chloroquine in severe malaria being practised in some centres; quinine would be a suitable alternative based on current trends. Co-existing infections, especially the association of other infections with BM, are an important feature in both wet and arid regions of Nigeria and point to the need for "routine" diagnostic spinal taps in order to minimise the chances of a missed diagnosis of BM.
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PMID:Aetiological considerations in the febrile unconscious child in the rainforest and arid regions of Nigeria. 870 9

This paper on bacterial meningitis looks at aspects inherent in the aetiology and mechanisms underlying neurological damage and pharmacological treatment. Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae type b and Neisseria meningitidis are the pathogens most commonly responsible and are able to colonise the host's respiratory mucosae, invade the vascular space, cross the haematoliquoral barrier and survive in the cerebrospinal fluid. The presence of germs in the subarachnoid spaces leads to the onset of inflammation and neurological damage. The most often used pharmacological treatments include, apart from antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs (although we have clinical data for corticosteroids only), pentoxyphillin and monoclonal antibodies. Initially empiric, antibiotic therapy is based on the use of drugs that act against the probable pathogenic agents, are capable of surmounting the haematoliquoral barrier and are well tolerated. Prior to the Eighties, the antibiotic of choice was ampicillin associated or otherwise with aminoglycosides. Subsequently, the availability of new drugs (cefotaxime and ceftriaxone) and the appearance of resistance led to changes in therapeutic protocols. Of the carbapenemics, wide spectrum antibiotics with high resistance to beta lactamase, imipenem /cilastatin proved effective although there was a high risk of inducing convulsions in patients with previous neurological damage or kidney failure. Meropenem was able to surmount the haematoliquoral barrier in sufficient concentrations and was well tolerated in patients with prior neurological changes. It has proved effective in clinical studies carried out up to the present.
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PMID:[Current problems in the treatment of bacterial meningitis]. 909 74

The hearing function of 50 children with bacterial meningitis was evaluated at the second and 10th days, and eight weeks after admission with auditory brain system responses (ABR) to investigate whether meningitis causes hearing loss. Normal values were obtained in all tests from both ears of 24 patients (48 per cent). Twelve patients (24 per cent) had temporary, and seven (14 per cent) patients had persistent mild degree hearing loss. Severe hearing loss was detected bilaterally in five (10 per cent) patients and unilaterally in two (four per cent) patients. Patients, with other complications such as subdural effusion, convulsion, brain oedema and paralysis were found to have a higher incidence of hearing loss. We observed that patients treated with dexamethasone had 7.7 per cent persistent hearing loss, 11.6 per cent mild hearing loss, 34.6 per cent transient hearing loss, but in the group who did not receive dexamethasone there was 19.2 per cent persistent hearing loss, 15.3 per cent mild hearing loss and 11.6 per cent transient hearing loss. There were other significant differences between the two groups in restoration of normal body temperature, the CSF/plasma glucose concentration ratio was elevated, CSF (cerebro-spinal fluid) protein concentration was decreased and the cell count in the CSF was decreased in the dexamethasone group, significantly more than the group who were not receiving dexamethasone. The hearing loss tended to be more frequent among younger children.
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PMID:Evaluation of hearing loss with auditory brainstem responses in the early and late period of bacterial meningitis in children. 915 57

Carbapenems are active beta-lactam antibiotics versus most of the gram positive and gram negative microorganisms and anaerobes although their activity is lacking in the case of Staphylococcus sp. resistant to methicillin, Enterococcus faecium and Streptococcus pneumoniae with high resistance to penicillin and some gram negative bacilli which naturally produce an methaloenzyme able to hydrolyze them such as Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. Imipenem, the first synthetized carbapenem requires administration with cilastatin to avoid inactivation by renal dehydropeptidase 1. Meropenem does not require being taken with the renal enzyme inhibitor, with its activity being similar to that of imipenem. In abdominal infection the carbapenems have shown to be the authentic monotherapy in this type of infections being as effective as the different schedules of antibiotic associations normally used. Treatment with carbapenems in bacterial meningitis should be currently limited to the cases produced by gram negative bacilli producers of wide spectrum beta-lactamases (WSBL), cases of meningitis by Pseudomonas aeruginosa or gram negative bacilli producers of inducible cephalosporinase. Meropenem is the carbapenem of choice probably in these cases because the carbapenems are often the only active antibiotics and meropenem, specifically, does not have the risk of convulsions observed with imipenem-cilastatin. The carbapenems have shown to be useful in skin and soft tissue infections as well as in obstetric and gynecologic infections as monotherapy similar to the schedules of the currently used antibiotic associations. In the case of nosocomial pneumonias, all the studies have evaluated the carbapenems in monotherapy as useful and effective, specially in the case of pneumonia by gram negative bacilli. Finally, in non filiated nosocomial sepsis and specially in the case of neutropenic patients, the use of carbapenems is particularly attractive in gram negative sepsis in intensive care units. The appearance in the last few years of strains of gram negative bacilli, producers of wide spectrum beta-lactamase or stable repressed hyperproducers of class I chromosomic cephalosporinase, as well as other multiresistant gram negative bacilli, such as Acinetobacter baumanii make the carbapenems, in many cases, the only effective antibiotic in this type of infections.
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PMID:[The role of carbapenems in the treatment of nosocomial infection]. 941 75

A study was done on 111 children admitted in a university hospital in Tehran with fever and seizures to document the pattern of illness and to define indications for performing a lumbar puncture in children with fever and convulsions. Bacterial meningitis was diagnosed in 4 patients, aseptic meningitis in 2 and 105 children had febrile seizures. The cause of fever was gastro-enteritis in 39 patients and upper respiratory tract infection with or without Otitis media in 40. Although most patients were drowsy on admission (n = 93), none had any signs of meningeal irritation, except one child with slight nuchal rigidity. Out of the 4 children with bacterial meningitis, 3 had meningeal signs, but in one 10 month old baby with no signs, the diagnosis was made on the cerebro-spinal fluid findings after a lumbar puncture. These results support the view that a lumbar puncture should be performed on all infants under 12 months who present with fever and convulsions and strongly considered between 12 and 18 months. After 18 months a lumbar puncture is mandatory in the presence of signs of meningeal irritation.
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PMID:Febrile seizures: clinical course and diagnostic evaluation. 1002 96


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