Study of cell mediated and humoral immunity in acute bacterial meningitis

Twenty (20) patients suffering from acute bacterial meningitis and ten (10) normal individuals were included in this study. Patient's age ranged from 3-50 years; they were chosen from Abassia Fever Hospital. Serum as well as CSF immunoglobulin G and M were measured at admittance and 2 days later, E rosette test was done and compared with the control group. Significant increase in IgM in CSF was recorded in early acute cases. IgG was significantly increased in CSF in both early and late cases. The increase in serum immunoglobulins was insignificant in all cases. Using E rosette test no significant difference was detected in T-lymphocytes in patient groups as compared with normal controls. From this work we can conclude that the increase in the type of CSF immunoglobulin could differentiate acute (increase in IgM) from late cases (increase in IgG). Also we can conclude that cell mediated immunity has no role in bacterial meningitis as the increase in T lymphocytes was insignificant.