Counter immuno electrophoresis for the early diagnosis of acute pyogenic meningitis.

A total of 123 cases of acute pyogenic meningitis were studied to investigate whether counter current immunoelectrophoresis (CIEP) would facilitate rapid etiological diagnosis when used with other routine methods in a clinical bacteriology laboratory. Of the 123 cases, 53 (43.08 percent) were culture positive. Streptococcus pneumoniae was the commonest etiological agent accounting for 30 (56.6 percent) of the isolates. There were four isolates of Haemophilus influenzae and one of Neisseria meningitidis. High rates of isolation were found from turbid CSF samples, those showing a high polymorphonuclear cellular reaction and from those with a high protein and a low sugar level. CIEP detected antigen in 50 percent of cases of Haemophilus influenzae and 76.7 percent of cases of Streptococcus pneumoniae.