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COMPARISON OF CULTURE AND PCR METHODS IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF BACTERIAL MENINGITIS

DDr. Bakhtawer Mehmood, Dr. Maham Shakoor, Dr. Farhan Nasir

Our aim in this study is to understand the standard culture method of positive bacterial meningitis, during the CSF examination of the patients with the pre-diagnosis of acute bacterial meningitis. For the purposes of this study, patients with acute bacterial meningitis treated in a hospital at clinical microbiology carried out between December 2017 and April 2018. The diagnosis of bacterial meningitis was made based on the clinical findings, laboratory test anomalies, CSF analysis results, and the radiological images. Development was analysed in the CSF cultures of 10 out of the 57 patients included in the study (17.5%) and Streptococcus pneumonia was isolated in all of them. The CSF samples of 34 patients (59.6%) were positive according to Streptococcus pneumonia and detected in 33 of the samples (97.05%), while Neisseria meningitides was established in one sample (2.95%). In a total of 10 patients, Streptococcus pneumonia was both isolated in the CSF culture. The culture was negative in 23 of the CSF samples. There was no sample in which the CSF culture was positive. While it seems more efficient method than bacterial culturing to determine the pathogens that most commonly cause bacterial meningitis in adults, further studies conducted on larger populations are needed in order to assess its efficiency and uses. Keywords: Bacterial meningitis; Culture; Cerebrospinal fluid.

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