DOI: https://doi.org/10.36347/sajb.2024.v12i07.005

Pages: 209-219

Background: Meningitis is a severe infection causing inflammation of the menengiase around the brain and spinal cord, primarily affecting infants, particularly neonates, leading to significant morbidity and mortality. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the significance of CSF Creative protein in the early diagnosis of bacterial meningitis and to compare the sensitivity of CSF C-reactive protein in the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis with other parameters in order to differentiate between bacterial meningitis and other meningitis. Method: A prospective cross-sectional study conducted at Benghazi Children’s Hospital in a period from February 2022 to February 2023. A total of 100 children out of them 50 cases as case-control groups randomly selected recruited for this study. The age, gender and symptoms of the cases were determined. A blood test and detailed cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis, including blood and CSF CRP levels, were done. Results: The mean age of the study population was 9.12±5.89 months, ranging from 2 to 24 months. The mean age of meningitis cases was 7.42 ± 5.56 months. Almost half of cases fell in the age group (7–12) months. The distribution of cases with aseptic meningitis (27, 54%) was slightly higher than that with bacterial meningitis (23, 46%), totally; females (60, 60%) were more predominant than males (40, 40%). In bacterial meningitis cases, the female (14, 60.9%) gender was more predominant than male (9, 39.1%). All cases came with fever (27, 100%), and no cases came with convulsion (0, 00%), the mean level of CRP in blood was (199.13±59.31%), the level of CRP in CSF was (7.61±14.51), the mean concentration of white blood cell (WBC) in CSF was (219.48 ±161.76 x109/L)), the mean percent of neutrophils in CSF was (80±16.03%), the mean percent of lymphocyte in CSF (19.57±16.16)%), the mean concentration of sugar in CSF was (17.78±8.99mg/dl), the mean concentration of protein in CSF was (155.04±120.08mg/dl), and the mean count of red ...