Skip to main content
. 2024 Nov 30;16(11):e74827. doi: 10.7759/cureus.74827

Table 2. Laboratory data and outcome of hospitalized children with acute bacterial meningitis and univariate analysis for factors associated with mortality.

Abbreviations: WBC: white blood cell, CSF: cerebrospinal fluid, NA: not applicable, OR: odds ratio, CI: confidence interval

Notes: The analysis was made via 1linear model ANOVA and 2Pearson's chi-squared test. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

*Other germs were Neisseria meningitides and Haemophilus influenza type b.

Variables Subgroups Total (N=387) Alive (N=372, 96.1%) Died (N=15, 3.9%) OR (95% CI) p-value
CSF fluid appearance Cloudy 379 (97.9) 364 (97.8) 15 (100.0) Reference group 0.8481
Yellow 5 (1.3) 5 (1.3) 0 (0.0) NA
Pink 3 (0.8) 3 (0.8) 0 (0.0) NA
CSF culture Streptococcus pneumonia 383 (99.0) 370 (99.5) 13 (86.7) Reference group < 0.0011
Other* 4 (1.0) 2 (0.5) 2 (13.3) 28.46 (3.22-253.04)
Hospitalization Less than 5 days 280 (72.4) 268 (72.0) 12 (80.0) Reference group 0.6161
Between 5-14 days 90 (23.3) 88 (23.7) 2 (13.3) 0.51 (0.08-1.91)
More than 14 days 17 (4.4) 16 (4.3) 1 (6.7) 1.40 (0.07-7.79)
CSF WBCs ≥2000 per μL 331 (85.5) 322 (86.6) 9 (60.0) Reference group 0.0041
<2000 per μL 56 (14.5) 50 (13.4) 6 (40.0) 4.29 (1.39-12.43)
CSF Glucose ≤ 70 (mg/dL) 10 (2.6) 8 (2.2) 2 (13.3) Reference group 0.0531
> 70 (mg/dL) 377 (97.4) 364 (97.8) 13 (86.7) 0.14 (0.03-1.01)
CSF Protein > 100 (mg/dL) 6 (1.6) 6 (1.6) 0 (0.0) Reference group 0.6201
≤ 100 (mg/dL) 381 (98.4) 366 (98.4) 15 (100.0) NA