Diagnosed tuberculous meningitis using cerebrospinal fluid polymerase chain reaction in patients hospitalized with the diagnosis of meningitis in referral hospitals in Isfahan

Background: tuberculosis (tb) remains one of the leading infectious diseases throughout the world. among various forms of extrapulmonary tb,tuberculous meningitis (tbm) is the most severe form and remains a major global health problem with a high mortality rate. our study was designed to evaluate tuberculous polymerase chain reaction (pcr) positive rate in patients who present with fairly long symptoms of meningitis. materials and methods: the 162 patients with an indolent onset of symptoms compatible with central nervous system infection were admitted. sample of cerebrospinal fluid (csf) was evaluated for biochemistry and tuberculous real-time pcr. data analyzed by student’s t-test and fisher’s test. results: patients were mostly male (69.8%),with a median age of 43.69 ± 22.67 years. csf real-time pcr results in 6 patients (3.7%) were positive for tuberculous dna. of these 6 patients,4 of whom were men and two of whom were women. in other words,the frequency of positive tuberculous dna was in male 5.3% and female 1.4%,respectively. conclusion: given that we live in iran and in the vicinity of the tuberculous endemic countries,if we face a meningitis case with lasting symptoms and tendency to be chronic,tbm should be considered. © 2015,isfahan university of medical sciences(iums). all rights reserved.