Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Tubercular Meningitis-CT criteria

Objective CT criteria to determine the presence of abnormal basal enhancement in children with suspected tuberculous meningitis.
"There are no widely accepted objective criteria to determine the presence of basal enhancement on CT in children with suspected tuberculous meningitis (TBM). Przybojewski S et al in Pediatr Radiol 2006 Apr 26; [Epub ahead of print] have tested nine recently described objective CT criteria for the presence of abnormal basal enhancement in children with suspected TBM against the definite diagnosis as determined by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) culture. The criteria have been named: the 'Y-sign', 'linear enhancement', 'double lines', 'infundibular recess of the third', 'ill-defined edge', 'nodular enhancement', 'join the dots', 'contrast filling the cisterns', and 'asymmetry'. Very high specificity was demonstrated for all nine criteria, including 100% specificity for four individual criteria. Sensitivity was at best 82%, but improved to 91% when more than one criterion was present."

No comments:

Post a Comment