Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
Department of Critical Care Medicine, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China.
Eur Neurol. 2021;84(5):325-332. doi: 10.1159/000507188. Epub 2021 Jun 28.
Central nervous system (CNS) infectious diseases are common diseases in emergency rooms and neurology departments. CNS pathogen identification methods are time consuming and expensive and have low sensitivity and poor specificity. Some studies have shown that bacteria and viruses can produce specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The aim of this study is to find potential biomarkers by VOC analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in patients with bacterial and viral meningitis/encephalitis (ME).
CSF samples from 16 patients with bacterial ME and 42 patients with viral ME were collected, and solid-phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to analyze the metabolites in the CSF.
There are 2 substances (ethylene oxide and phenol) that were found to be different between the 2 groups. Ethylene oxide was significantly greater in the group of bacterial ME patients than in the viral ME group of patients (p < 0.05). In addition, phenol was remarkably increased in the group of ME patients compared with the bacterial ME patients (p < 0.05).
Ethylene oxide and phenol may be potential biomarkers to distinguish bacterial ME and viral ME. VOC analysis of CSF may be used as a supporting tool for clinical diagnosis.
中枢神经系统（CNS）感染性疾病是急诊科和神经科的常见疾病。CNS 病原体的鉴定方法既费时又昂贵，且敏感性低、特异性差。一些研究表明，细菌和病毒会产生特定的挥发性有机化合物（VOC）。本研究旨在通过分析细菌性和病毒性脑膜炎/脑炎（ME）患者的脑脊液（CSF）中的潜在生物标志物。
收集了 16 例细菌性 ME 患者和 42 例病毒性 ME 患者的 CSF 样本，并使用固相微萃取结合气相色谱-质谱法分析 CSF 中的代谢物。
在两组之间发现了 2 种（环氧乙烷和苯酚）物质存在差异。细菌性 ME 患者组中环氧乙烷明显高于病毒性 ME 患者组（p < 0.05）。此外，与细菌性 ME 患者相比，ME 患者组中苯酚显著增加（p < 0.05）。
环氧乙烷和苯酚可能是区分细菌性 ME 和病毒性 ME 的潜在生物标志物。CSF 的 VOC 分析可能可用作临床诊断的辅助工具。
