Liora ter Horst

1 Introduction Acute encephalitis is a severe neurological disorder defined as inflammation of the brain parenchyma. The estimated incidence in high-income countries is 5–10 per 100,000 inhabitants per year [1, 2]. Presenting symptoms are generally an acute onset of fever, altered mental status, new onset of focal neurological symptoms, and generalized or focal seizures [3]. The mortality rate, which exhibits significant variability across studies and pathogens, ranges between 5% and 20%.

Highlights • Biomarkers in CSF can differentiate bacterial meningitis from other disorders • Diagnostic accuracy of combined markers exceeds that of CSF leukocytes alone • Biomarkers in plasma do not aid in the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis Abstract We aimed to determine diagnostic accuracy of inflammatory markers in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid for the diagnosis of central nervous system infections and specifically bacterial meningitis.