Mortality in hospitalized patients with tuberculous meningitis

To evaluate the mortality in hospitalized patients with tuberculous meningitis and describe factors associated with an increased risk of mortality.

Retrospective study of hospitalized patients with tuberculous meningitis between 2006 and 2015 in Peru performing a generalized linear regression to identify factors predictive of in-hospital mortality.

Of 263 patients, the median age was 35 years, 72.6% were men, 38% were positive for HIV upon admission, 24% had prior TB infections and 2.3% had prior MDR-TB infections. In-hospital mortality was 30.4% of all study patients with a final diagnosis of TBM. When multivariable analysis was applied, significant associations with in-hospital mortality were seen among patients with HIV (RR 2.06; Confidence Interval 95% (95% CI) 1.44-2.94), BMRC II (RR 1.78; 95% CI 1.07-2.97), BMRC III (RR 3.11; 95% CI 1.78-5.45) and positive CSF cultures (RR 1.95; 95% CI 1.39-2.74).

In-hospital mortality is higher among patients with HIV infections, age over 40 years, positive CSF TB culture and BMRC stage II or III.