Distinguishing bacterial from viral meningitis: the critical importance of the CSF lactic acid levels.

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

Who cites it

10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

1. Cerebrospinal fluid lactate concentration to distinguish bacterial from aseptic meningitis: a systemic review and meta-analysis.Critical care (London, England) · 2010
   Pooled it
2. Cerebrospinal Fluid and Blood Lactate and Procalcitonin for Diagnosis of Post-neurosurgical Bacterial Meningitis.Asian journal of neurosurgery · 2026
   Article
3. A post-implementation evaluation of BioFire FilmArray Meningitis/Encephalitis panel for pathogen detection in cerebrospinal fluid with a special focus on clinical significance of HHV-6.Microbiology spectrum · 2026
   Observational
4. The value of elevated cerebrospinal fluid lactate concentrations in post-neurosurgical bacterial meningitis.BMC neurology · 2023
   Observational
5. Cerebrospinal Fluid Findings Are Poor Predictors of Appropriate FilmArray Meningitis/Encephalitis Panel Utilization in Pediatric Patients.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2020
   Article
6. Development and verification of a discriminate algorithm for diagnosing post-neurosurgical bacterial meningitis-A multicenter observational study.Journal of clinical laboratory analysis · 2020
   Observational
7. Diagnostic value of lactate, procalcitonin, ferritin, serum-C-reactive protein, and other biomarkers in bacterial and viral meningitis: A cross-sectional study.Medicine · 2017
   Article
8. Performance of thirteen clinical rules to distinguish bacterial and presumed viral meningitis in Vietnamese children.PloS one · 2012
   Article
9. A proteomic approach for the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis.PloS one · 2010
   Article
10. Nosocomial meningitis.Current infectious disease reports · 2007
    Article

Corrections and comments

• Comment on
  Accuracy of clinical presentation for differentiating bacterial from viral meningitis in adults: a multivariate approach.2005
• Erratum issued

Authors and funding

1 author.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

Abstract

PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.

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