ABSTRACT
Bacterial meningitis [BM] is a life threatening infection caused by bacterial invasion of the meninges. It remains a major cause of mortality and has a case fatality rate of 10-30%. Despite the availability of potent newer antibiotics, the mortality rate due to acute bacterial meningitis remains significantly high in Egypt and other developing countries, ranging from 16-32%. There is a need for a periodic review of bacterial meningitis worldwide, since the pathogens responsible for the infection vary with time, geography and patient age. Polymerase chain reaction [PCR] is useful for rapid microbial detection in body fluids with low microbial load it is easier to use universal or broad range primers for the amplification of conserved stretches of DNA common to all bacteria like 16S rRNA gene, followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism [RFLP] of PCR products which lead up fast and sensitive determination. Thirty CSF samples were collected during the study period from patients suspected of having meningitis. All samples were subjected to the conventional methods of pathogen identification. An aliquot [200 ?/] was processed/or DNA extraction, PCR and the PCR product was digested with Haelll. Out of 30 clinically BM cases, 17 yielded growth on CSF culture and 13[43.3%] didn't. All the 17[56.7%] CSF samples were positive by both culture and BBR-PCR. Twenty seven [90%] cases of all CSF samples showed evidence of bacterial presence by PCR and 3 [10%] were negative. Of these, 17 [5 6. 7%] yielded a growth on culture and 10[33.3%] didn't. Three [10%] cases were negative by both culture and PCR. The sensitivity of CSF culture was 63% and the specificity was 100%. Both sensitivity and specificity of universal PCR for detection of BM pathogens were 100%