Rapid detection of bacterial meningitis using a point-of-care glucometer.

Link to article at PubMed

Icon for Wolters Kluwer Related Articles

Rapid detection of bacterial meningitis using a point-of-care glucometer.

Eur J Emerg Med. 2019 Feb;26(1):41-46

Authors: Rousseau G, Asmolov R, Grammatico-Guillon L, Auvet A, Laribi S, Garot D, Jouan Y, Dequin PF, Guillon A

Abstract
BACKGROUND: In case of acute bacterial meningitis, a decision on the need for intensive care admission should be made within the first hour. The aim of this study was to assess the ability of a point-of-care glucometer to determine abnormal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) glucose concentration at the bedside that contributes toward bacterial meningitis diagnosis.
METHODS: We carried out a prospective study and simultaneously measured the glucose concentrations in CSF and blood using a central laboratory and a point-of-care glucometer. We compared CSF/blood glucose ratios obtained at the bedside with a glucometer versus those obtained by the central laboratory. We determined the performance characteristics of the CSF/blood glucose ratio provided by a glucometer to detect bacterial infection in the CSF immediately after CSF sampling.
RESULTS: We screened 201 CSF collection procedures during the study period and included 172 samples for analysis. Acute bacterial meningitis was diagnosed in 17/172 (9.9%) of CSF samples. The median turnaround time for a point-of-care glucometer analysis was 5 (interquartile range 2-10) min versus 112 (interquartile range 86-154) min for the central laboratory (P<0.0001). The optimal cut-off of the CSF/blood glucose ratio calculated from a bedside glucometer was 0.46, with a sensitivity of 94.1% (95% confidence interval: 71.3-99.9%), a specificity of 91% (95% confidence interval: 85.3-95%), and a positive likelihood ratio of 10.
CONCLUSION: A glucometer accurately detects an abnormal CSF/blood glucose ratio immediately after the lumbar puncture. This cheap point-of-care method has the potential to speed up the diagnostic process of patients with bacterial meningitis.

PMID: 28799985 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *