quick and easy meningitis question

[cobaltgreen]

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hey-
have to write a short blurb about someone who had a positive (by PCR) meningitis CSF culture.

question: can i tell what sort of meningitis he has (viral or bacterial)? does a positive PCR test mean that he has an active infection?

thanks

 

[njaqua]

hey-
have to write a short blurb about someone who had a positive (by PCR) meningitis CSF culture.

question: can i tell what sort of meningitis he has (viral or bacterial)? does a positive PCR test mean that he has an active infection?

thanks

in the CSF:
bacteria would have increased protein and decreased glucose as well as neutrophils. a viral infection would have inc or normal protein, normal glucose, and lymphocytes.

 

[cobaltgreen]

ah--gotcha. the lab only lists PCR positive and no cells present. the chart is not complete yet for the other things...

culture was also negative.

 

[cobaltgreen]

his age-- 20 years old. his immune status is competent. (sorry i have so little info--the chart is not available so i am going from memory.)

he has a history of depression and drug use--tox screen shows THC only.

he was in the hospital for the meningitis--but he states that they did not do much and he was out in a few days. that was in early august. he came into the office recently--so i am trying to glean as much as i can without all the data.

thanks for all the quick replies!

 

[Midwest Medic]

We usually only send CSF for PCR for herpes. So it is a good chance that the positive PCR was for a herpes virus.

 

[SomeDoc]

hey-
have to write a short blurb about someone who had a positive (by PCR) meningitis CSF culture.

question: can i tell what sort of meningitis he has (viral or bacterial)? does a positive PCR test mean that he has an active infection?

thanks

PCR is a highly specific test- thus just knowing that it came back "positive by PCR" will tell you nothing. You need to know what PCR test was done- IE was it done using primers specific to DNA of Viral or Bacterial origin? Once you figure that out, you will have your answer.

 

[Blade28]

Exactly where is this lab data coming from? A print-out? The patient's electronic chart?