[Clinical value of the sequential study of the uric acid level in the CSF in patients with postoperative meningitis].

In this study we discuss the clinical value of the sequential measurement of the CSF uric acid and CSF cells in patients with postoperative acute meningitis. CSF was investigated for uric acid and cells in 10 cases with postoperative meningitis and 12 cases without it for the control group. The results were as follows; The CSF uric acid level was markedly increased in direct proportion to neutrophilia in the CSF in the acute stage of postoperative meningitis. Some cases with postoperative meningitis had biphasic increasing pattern of the CSF uric acid level. In 12 cases without postoperative meningitis the CSF uric acid level had been progressively reduced and then normalized until the fourth day after operation. The factors contributing to the increase of the uric acid in CSF under the condition of postoperative meningitis were thought to be 1) increased permeability of the blood-CSF barrier, 2) neutrophilia in the CSF and increase of the nucleic acid due to it, 3) increase of hypoxanthine, xanthine or xanthine oxidase activity in the central nervous system and 4) dysfunction of the CSF dynamics.