The microbiology and clinical characteristics of bacterial and fungal meningitis in a Chinese hospital

Abstract

<br><b>Introduction:</b> The aim was to investigate the distribution, antibiotic resistance, initial clinical and laboratory characteristics of pathogens isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid samples (CSF).<br /> <br><b>Material and methods: </b> The CSF were subjected for identification. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of antimicrobial agents were tested. The initial clinical and laboratory characteristics were collected.<br /> <br><b>Results: </b> The rate of positive yield of pathogen meningitis in our study was 8.16% . Among the 1994 non-repetitive pathogens, Gram-positive pathogen was the most common (71.71%), followed by Gram-negative pathogen (20.36%), fungal (6.62%) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (1.30%). Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) was the most common Gram-positive pathogen and Acinetobacter baumannii (Ab) was the most common Gram-negative pathogen. As to fungal pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans (CN) was the most common. The main CNS showed higher antimicrobial resistant rate for Penicillin G, oxacillin, clindamycin and erythromycin. Acinetobacter baumannii resistant to the most tested antibiotics and only showed considerable rate of resistance to cefoperazone/sulbactam, tigecycline and amikacin. All CN were susceptible to 5-fluorocytosine and only 3.6% CN were resistance to fluconazole. Long days of hospital stay, fever and meningeal irritation signs were common symptoms in the bacterial and fungal meningitis. Head injury, disturbance of consciousness, the pupil size of both eyes was not equal, pupillary reaction to light was slow or absent were more common in the Ab meningitis. The CSF protein concentration and white blood cells count as well as glucose concentration can be used in guiding initial treatment and further microbiological investigation.<br /> <br><b>Conclusions: </b> The main pathogens showed higher antimicrobial resistant rate and the selection of empiric antibiotics should take into consideration local epidemiology, antibiotic resistance patterns and the suspected causative microorganism.