Rapid diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis by a simplified nested amplification protocol

We have developed a simplified protocol based on nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for early diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis. Using this protocol, we detected the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome within 24 hours in the CSF of 19 of 21 patients (90%) with clinically suspected tuberculous meningitis. The PCR results were negative in all 79 nontuberculous meningitis controls.