Evaluation of the Laboratory, Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of Meningitis Patients Admitted to the Hospitals of Yazd from ۲۰۰۹ to ۲۰۱۳

Background and Aims: Since the epidemiological, clinical and experimental characteristics of meningitis are different for various locations, this study was conducted to investigate the characteristics of meningitis patients admitted to hospitals of Yazd in the ۲۰۰۹ to ۲۰۱۳. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional and descriptive study, all ۲۶۱ patients with meningitis were considered in Yazd hospitals in the years ۲۰۰۹ to ۲۰۱۳. The type of sampling method was census. The data were collected from patients’ files using special forms that were designed for this purpose. Results: In this study, ۱۵۸ men (۶۰.۵%) and ۱۰۳ women (۳۹.۵%) were considered. Among the patients, ۵۳ people (۲۰.۳۰%) were under one-year-old, ۶۳ people (۲۴.۱۴%) were between one to seven-year-old, and ۸۵ people (۳۲.۵۷%) were adult. Among ۲۶۱ patients, ۱۲۶ ones (۴۸.۲۸%) and ۱۳۵ ones (۵۱.۷۲%) were hospitalized with a diagnosis of non-bacterial meningitis and bacterial meningitis respectively. Generally, the cultivations of just ۴ people (۱.۵%) were positive. The percentage of neutrophils and lymphocytes, the amount of glucose and the protein of cerebrospinal fluid in bacterial and aseptic meningitis was significantly different (p<۰.۰۰۱), but the total number of white blood cells, red blood cells and lactate dehydrogenase levels were not significantly different between the two groups. Conclusions: Since there is no significant difference between epidemiological characteristics and clinical symptoms in bacterial and no-bacterial meningitis, it seems that doing laboratory tests, despite aggressive, is the best practice for differentiating between types of meningitis and the fast performance of it could somewhat prevent the improper antibiotic therapy.

Keywords:

Clinical symptoms , Epidemiological characteristics , Laboratory tests , Meningitis , Yazd