DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUE FOR MENINGITIS IN CHILDREN Russian patent published in 2015 - IPC G01N33/48 

FIELD: medicine.

SUBSTANCE: effective therapy and prevention of neurological impairment require the timely and earliest possible diagnosing of a disease and the validation of its nature. The early differential diagnosing of the viral or bacterial origin of the disease promotes prescribing the adequate initial etiological treatment, reduces the spreading process, the agent eradication, the cerebrospinal fluid sanitation, and improves the clinical outcome of the disease. What is presented is a novel differential diagnostic technique for viral and bacterial meningitis providing the accuracy and expressivity by determining the total haptoglobin concentration in the cerebrospinal fluid. The spinal fluid sampled by a diagnostic lumbar puncture in the acute period of the disease, is additionally examined for the total haptoglobin concentration for 1 hour by qualitative immunoturbidimetric technique; if the concentration is 0.7 mg/dl or less, viral meningitis is diagnosed, while the concentration of more than 0.7 mg/dl shows bacterial meningitis.

EFFECT: rapid and accurate determination of the viral or bacterial origin of meningitis at the early stage of the disease and prescription of the adequate initial etiological treatment.

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