Role of cerebrospinal fluid il-8 as a marker for differentiation between acute bacterial and aseptic meningitis

Abstract EN

-No doubt, the distinguishing between bacterial and aseptic meningitis in the emergency department could help to limit unnecessary antibiotic use and hospital admissions.

This study evaluated the role of cerebrospinal fluid IL-8 in differentiating acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) from aseptic meningitis (AM).

A total of 80 hospitalized patients with clinical presentations of suspected acute meningitis were subjected to estimation of IL-8 CSF concentrations.

The results showed that CSF IL-8 levels were higher in acute bacterial meningitis than in aseptic ones (p <0.05).

The best cut-off value of CSF IL8 for early diagnosis of bacterial meningitis was 3.6ng/ml with a sensitivity of 82.5% and a specificity of 85.0%.

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