FREQUENCY OF M. TUBERCULOSIS DETECTION IN CSF OF PATIENTS WITH SUSPECTED TUBERCULOUS MENINGITIS

Abstract

Background; The annual incidence of tuberculous meningitis (TM) is unknown. TM is a disease that still often results in residual sequelae, and has a mortality rate ranging between 15 and 51%. Experience of countries such as Pakistan where drug-resistant tuberculosis and TM are prevalent is important. Objective:  To determine the frequency of M. Tuberculosis detection in CSF of patients with suspected tuberculous meningitis at a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods; A total of 95 patients were included in this descriptive study. The demographic data like age, sex, height, weight, monthly family income and address of the patients was collected. Cases of TBM fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. CSF was collected after consent, through lumbar puncture (LP) done by the post graduate trainee (author or colleagues) under aseptic measures and was sent to the designated hospital laboratory for GeneXpert MTB/Rif assay and report was assessed for M. tuberculosis detection. Data was collected and entered in SPSS and analyzed. Results; total of 95 patients with tuberculous meningitis meeting inclusion criteria of our study were included in this study. Of these 95 study cases, 37 (38.9%) were male patients while 58 (61.1%) were female patients. Mean age of our study cases was 26.62 ± 5.94 years. Of these 95 study cases, 49 (51.6%) were from rural areas and 46 (48.4%) belonged to the urban areas while 62 (65.3%) were from poor families. Seventeen (17.9%) had diabetes and 25 (26.3%) were having history of hypertension. Mean weight of our study cases was 56.16 ± 10.27 kilograms and 66 (69.5%) had up to 60 kilograms of weight. Mycobacterium tuberculous was noted in 49 (51.6%) of our study cases. Conclusion; High frequency of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was observed in our study in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of suspected patients of tuberculosis meningitis using genexpert MTB/RIF assay. Mycobacterium tuberculosis was significantly associated with age, socioeconomic status, diabetes and hypertension.

Keywords; Tuberculous meningitis, Mycobacterium TB, Genexpert.