Adult Patients With Suspected Meningitis and/or Encephalitis Clinical Trial
Official title:
Infections of the Central Nervous System - an Observational Cohort Study
This study is to describe the incidence of infectious meningitis and/or encephalitis, and to analyze clinical, diagnostic and treatment characteristics of patients with suspected (and subsequently verified and not verified) infection.
The specific aims of the study include: 1. To assess the incidence, the diagnostic workup, and the treatment characteristics of patients with suspected and confirmed ME. 2. To examine clinical differences between patients with initially suspected and confirmed infectious Meningitis (ME) versus those with suspected but not confirmed infectious ME. 3. To evaluate potentially prognostic factors for pathological CT findings (especially expanding cerebral mass lesions) in patients with suspected infectious ME. 4. To identify a specific group of patients that benefit from cranial CT prior to LP. 5. To examine possible complications (e.g., hematoma, postpuncture headache, cerebral herniation, …) of lumbal punction (LP) and their correlations to pathologic signs on cranial CT. 6. To compare the outcome between patients with suspected infectious ME and cranial CT prior to LP versus patients without prior cranial CT. ;