Observational studyMicrobiology spectrum2026
Pathogen detection in acellular cerebrospinal fluid: diagnostic insights from a pediatric cohort in Colombia.
Observational study in Microbiology spectrum, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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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.
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
The diagnosis of pediatric meningoencephalitis has traditionally relied on the detection of inflammatory markers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), particularly pleocytosis, as an indirect indicator of infection. This assumption presumes that microbial invasion of the central nervous system consistently triggers a measurable immune response. In this prospective observational study conducted in Cartagena, Colombia, we enrolled 166 pediatric patients with suspected meningoencephalitis. All patients underwent testing with the FilmArray Meningitis/Encephalitis (FA-M/E) panel for direct pathogen detection in CSF, and results were compared to conventional CSF cytochemical analysis and culture. The FA-M/E panel identified a pathogen in 21 of 166 patients (12.6%), whereas CSF cultures were negative in all cases. Detected pathogens included 16 viruses (76.2%), most frequently Enterovirus and Human Herpesvirus 6 and five bacteria (23.8%), including IMPORTANCE: This study challenges the long-standing paradigm that abnormal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) findings are required to justify molecular testing in pediatric meningoencephalitis. We show that critical central nervous system (CNS) infections can present with entirely normal CSF profiles, including cases caused by high-risk pathogens such as
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