All issues > Volume 31(12); 1988

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1988;31(12):1588-1593. Published online December 31, 1988.

Serum C-Reactive Protein in Differential Diagnosis of Meningitis in Children.

Hae Lim Chung¹, Hoan Jong Lee², Yong Seung Hwang²

¹Department of pediatrics, Seoul City Youngdungpo Hospital Seoul, Korea
²Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

Received: July 4, 1988;  Accepted: July 4, 1988.

Abstract

CSF findings such as cell count, differential count, protein, glucose and serum CRP determined by capillary precipitin method evaluated in 90 patients of meningitis admitted to the pediatric ward of Seoul National University Children’s Hospital, in terms of differential diagnosis of meningitis. The results are as follows; 1) There was considerable overlap of CSF findings and hematQlogic values between bacterial, aseptic and tuberculous meningitis groups. 2) All 9 patients with bacterial meningitis had serum CRP values of 2— 6+, while all 58 patients with aseptic meningitis had lower levels of serujn CRP (negative-24-). The sensitivity and specificity for bacterial meningitis were 100% and 89% when the criteria was set at 2+，and 89% and 100% at 3+. 3) patients with tuberculous meningitis had a wide range of serum CRP values (negative-6+). 4) In six of seven patient with bacterial meningitis follow-up CRP values during antibiotics treatment were normalized by 5-10 days. Above fidnings suggest that serum CRP is valuable in the differential diagnosis of bacteral and aseptic meningitis and follow-up of bacterial meningitis.

Keywords :Meningitis, C-reactive protein