DOI: 10.36347/sasjm.2020.v06i08.001

Pages: 166-169

Objective: To validate Thwaites’ diagnostic score for diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis. Materials and methods: It is a retrospective study done at a tertiary teaching hospital in South India. Clinical features including CSF parameters were collected and diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis or bacterial meningitis was made by Thwaites’ score and compared against final diagnosis made by a composite criteria. This is a simple score comprising of age, duration of illness, presence of leukocytosis, CSF white cell count and CSF neutrophil percentage. Results: Thwaites’ score had sensitivity and specificity of 96% and 56% to diagnose tuberculous meningitis. Conclusion: Thwaites’ diagnostic score is simple and helpful in detecting patients with tuberculous meningitis in population with high prevalence, especially in resource poor settings where nucleic acid amplification tests, neuroimaging are not easily available.