What Laboratory Testing May Be Helpful in Distinguishing Bacterial from Viral Meningitis?
In patients with CSF findings consistent with a diagnosis of bacterial meningitis, but in whom the CSF Gram stain and culture results are negative, there is no test that is definitive for or against the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis. A combination of test results, however, may permit an accurate prediction of the likelihood of bacterial versus viral meningitis. In one analysis of 422 patients with acute bacterial or viral meningitis, a CSF glucose concentration of 2000 leukocytes/mm 3, or a CSF neutrophil count of >1180 neutrophils/mm 3 were individual predictors of bacterial, rather than viral, meningitis, with ⩾99% certainty [20]. This model was validated in one retrospective review of adult patients with bacterial or viral meningitis [21], although proof of the clinical utility of this model will require a prospective application. This model, however, should not be used to make clinical decisions regarding the initiation of antimicrobial therapy in individual patients with meningitis. Therefore, other diagnostic tests have been examined.
Determination of lactate concentration. Elevated CSF lactate concentrations may be useful in differentiating bacterial from nonbacterial meningitis in patients who have not received prior antimicrobial therapy. In one study of 78 patients with acute meningitis in which CSF lactate concentrations of >4.2 mmol/L were considered to be a positive discriminative factor for bacterial meningitis [22], the sensitivity of the test was 96%, the specificity was 100%, the positive predictive value was 100%, and the negative predictive value was 97%. However, despite the high sensitivity and positive predictive value of CSF lactate concentrations in the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis, the results are generally nonspecific and provide little additional diagnostic information. Furthermore, other factors (e.g., cerebral hypoxia/ischemia, anaerobic glycolysis, vascular compromise, and metabolism of CSF leukocytes) also may elevate CSF lactate concentrations. Therefore, measurement of CSF lactate concentrations is not recommended for patients with suspected community-acquired bacterial meningitis (D-III). However, measurement of CSF lactate concentrations was found to be superior to use of the ratio of CSF to blood glucose for the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis in postoperative neurosurgical patients, in which a CSF concentration of 4.0 mmol/L was used as a cutoff value for the diagnosis [23]. The sensitivity was 88%, the specificity was 98%, the positive predictive value was 96%, and the negative predictive value was 94%. CSF lactate concentrations may be valuable in this subgroup of patients, in whom the usual CSF findings—elevated WBC counts (total and differential), positive Gram stain results, diminished glucose concentrations, and elevated protein concentrations—are neither sensitive nor specific to reliably distinguish bacterial from a nonbacterial meningeal syndrome. Therefore, in the postoperative neurosurgical patient, initiation of empirical antimicrobial therapy should be considered if CSF lactate concentrations are ⩾4.0 mmol/L, pending results of additional studies (B-II).