Diagnosis of pneumococcal meningitis by coagglutination method

It was tested the possibility to evidence the pneumococcal capsular antigen, by coagglutination, directly in CSF, using a specific coagglutinating reagent for all the 10 serological types of S. pneumoniae more frequently encountered in our country. Were investigated 134 CSF from purulent meningitis, out of which 37 were of probable pneumococcal etiology, on the basis of bacterioscopic examination, 26 of other etiology and 71 of unknown etiology. The results obtained showed 28 (75.7%) positive reactions in the fluids from probably pneumococcal meningitides on the basis of the positive bacterioscopic examination. The specificity of the reactions is demonstrated by the negative reactions with the fluids from meningitides of other etiology, as well as by the concordance between the antigen serotype from the liquid and that of the isolated S. pneumoniae strain. For a good test sensitivity could argue the positive reactions obtained with 6 CSF from meningitides of unknown etiology.