[Serum and cerebrospinal fluid enzyme spectra in meningitis and their differential diagnostic value]

Dynamic examinations of the activity of glutamate-aspartate and glutamate-alanine aminotransferases (AST, ALT), fructose diphosphate aldolase and alkaline phosphatase in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were carried out in 512 patients (14 groups) suffering from viral and bacterial meningitis in the acute period, as well as in reconvalescents. The activity of the CSF enzymes was also determined in 70 healthy subjects. It was found that in the acute period of meningitis the activity of the CSF enzymes (mostly of the aminotransferases) rose, this rise being greater in meningococcal and tuberculous meningitis than in the viral one. In reconvalescents the activity of the aminotransferases dropped, and that of aldolase and alkaline phosphatase got normal. The activity of the blood serum enzymes showed no substantial changes. The differences in the activity of the enzymes may serve as a criterion for diagnostic differentiation of meningitis.