RESUMO
Tuberculous meningitis is the most common cause of chronic meningitis, but it is a treatable disease. Rapid diagnosis is mandatory and empiric therapy may sometimes be started before laboratory data is available. In this study, we tried to evaluate Dot immunoblot assay [Dot-Iba] which detects mycobacterial antigen in CSF, as a diagnostic tool for tuberculous meninitis. This study was conducted on 26 cases suspicious of tuberculous meningitis Cerebrospinal fluid examination and culture were done, then all samples were subjected to Dot immunoblot assay [Dot-Iba]. From the 26 cases, only ten cases were culture proven tuberculous meningitis. These cases were used as a reference for evaluation the test. Dot immunoblot assay [Dot-Iba] required 6 hours for performance in the laboratory. Sensitivity was 100%, specificity 81.25% and positive perdictive value was 76.9%. We concluded that Dot immunoblot assay is a sensitive and rapid test that can be used for diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis in developing countries