[Clinical and laboratory characteristics of 62 tuberculous meningoencephalitis cases]

The authors present clinical, demographic and laboratory characteristics of 62 patients with proven tuberculous meningoencephalitis admitted at Couto Maia Hospital, reference for patients with infectious diseases in the State of Bahia. The patients' age varied from 2 months to 50 years, 59.7% of the cases with ages ranging from 0 to 4 years, no sex predominance. The time length for the disease varied from 0 to 90 days, average around 13 days. The most common signs and symptoms were fever and neck stiffness in 86.7 and 81.8% of the cases respectively. The cerebrospinal fluid showed cells varying from 4 to 1549/mm3, average of 406; glucose from 20 to 70 mg/dL, average of 37.3, protein from 30 to 500 mg/dL, average of 203; lymphocyte predominance occurred in most cases, however in 21.3% there was predominance of neutrophils.