الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 16 |  |  |
| | | from | 16 | | |
Abstract
Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges covering the brain and spinal cord. The inflammation may be caused by infection with viruses, bacteria or other microorganisms as fungi and parasites like toxoplasmosis. Meningitis is a serious health problem demanding early diagnosis, effective treatment, prevention and control.
Suspected bacterial meningitis is a medical emergency; thus, immediate steps must be taken to establish the specific diagnosis and empirical antimicrobial treatment must be started rapidly. It is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among children and elderly. The mortality of untreated bacterial meningitis approaches 100% and even with optimum treatment mortality and morbidity might happen. In Egypt, the case fatality rate ranged from 8.5 to 55%.
Clinical signs and symptoms are unreliable in distinguishing bacterial meningitis from the more common forms of aseptic meningitis; therefore, lumbar puncture with cerebrospinal fluid analysis is recommended.
The aim of this work is to study the clinical significance of IL8 and Lactate in patients with suspected meningitis to differentiate bacterial from nonbacterial meningitis.
This study was conducted on 50 subjects with clinical manifestations of suspected meningitis classified into three groups:
Group I: Included twenty six patients diagnosed as bacterial meningitis.
Group II: Included fifteen patients diagnosed as viral meningitis.
Group III: Included nine patients which had free cerebrospinal fluid examination which were proven to be non meningitic cases and served as control.
All patients or their accompanying family members were interviewed and patients subjected to the following:
1. History and Clinical evaluation.
2. Routine laboratory investigations including:
- Complete blood picture.
- Random blood sugar
- CRP quantitative value
- ESR first hour and second hour
- Liver functions tests (serum ALT, AST, serum bilirubin, total protein, serum albumin, prothrombin time, activity and INR).
- Renal functions tests (serum urea and creatinine)
3. CSF analysis, the CSF sample is examined for presence and types of white blood cells, red blood cells, glucose level, and protein content.
4. CSF culture and gram stain
5. Routine radiological investigations: Computerized Tomography of the brain.
6. Estimation of lactate and IL8 levels in cerebrospinal fluid of the patients.
Our results revealed the following:
1. Most of cases of bacterial meningitis had coex