الفهرس 
AcknowledgementOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Acute bacterial meningitis is one of the most important public health problems faced people throughout the world, especially in developing countries. This disease is still dangerous and sometimes leads to fatal conditions in spite of the recent advances in its treatment. Therefore accurate and rapid diagnosis, and identification of the causative agents are very importan t. The aim of this study was to evaluate one of the rapid and specific immunological test (COA), in diagnosis of the three main organisms causing meningitis, and compare this method with traditional methods (DM, culture, and CIE test). This study was carried out on sixty clinically diagnosed cerebrospinal meningitis patients who were admitted to the Alexandria Fever Hospital. Every cerebrospinal fluid sample were centrifuged, then separated into: A. Deposit which was subjected to the following bacterial investigati on: I. DM examination by Gram stain. n. (a). Bacterial culture on: * Mueller Hinton agar. * Chocolate agar. * MacConkey agar. (b) Identification procedure. Based on morphological, cultural characters, biochemical and serological studies (Slide agglutination). B- Supernatant which divided into two parts: i. The first was investigated directly by COA test after treatment (by or heating stabilized staphylococcal protein A) of the samples, and this treatment was done as: a - 0.5 ml of 10 stabilized staphylococcal protein A deposit was mixed with the CSF supernatant, and then incubation at 37°C for 10 min, centrifuged, and the clear supernatant was used. b - The sLpernatant was heated at 80°C for 5 min, then left to cool, and used. The procedure was carried out as: A drop of CSF supernatant was added to one of specific antisera. Mixed well with an applicator stick, and rotated manually for up to two min, and then observed a visible clumping reactions for the test. ii. The other part examined by CIE method. - In this test standard glass slide (8 x 10 cm) was used and covered with 10 ml of 1 melted agarose (pH 8.6, and ionic strength 0.05), then the agarose left to gel, and pairs of well were punched. - The undiluted and diluted CSF supernatant were used. - A positive control was used in each run. - The gel was placed in the CIE chamber with the antigen wells near the cathode side and specific antisera in other side.