Active clinical trials for "Meningitis"

Meningitis is one of the most common central nervous system (CNS) infections encountered in infants and children. The source of infection in meningitis can be bacterial, viral, fungal, or parasitic in origin . Bacterial meningitis is a paediatric emergency with high mortality and morbidity rate. Hence it must be diagnosed and treated promptly. But the similar clinical presentation often makes it difficult to differentiate bacterial and non-bacterial aetiologies in children .

Background: Due to anatomical restrictions, the inflammatory response to intra-cerebral bacterial infections exposes swollen brain tissues to pressure and ischemia, resulting in life-threatening damage. However, diagnosing meningitis in patients after neurosurgery is complicated, due to brain tissue damage and changes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) caused by surgery. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a local, acute-phase protein. Previous studies on community-acquired septic meningitis reported high levels of intrathecal-produced HGF. Aim: The aim of present study is to evaluate a new platform for qualitative determination of HGF in body fluids and revealing the site of injury. Method: Based on a reverse-methachromacy method, strips are prepared. The surface on the strip changes colour to blue upon contact with HGF. Plan: CSF, urine and sputum of patients that develop fever post neurosurgery are analysed with the test and the results compared with conventional diagnostic methods. Clinical value: A rapid, equipment-free test gives the opportunity to identify the infectious focus in the infected organ long before culture results are available.

Enteroviruses (EV) are the most frequent cause of acute meningitis in the paediatric population. Detection of enterovirus in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is the gold standard diagnostic test. Recently, our laboratory published the BLEDI study which highlighted the interest of detecting EV in the blood of the paediatric population : (i) EV was found in more than a quarter of cases in the blood of infants admitted to hospital with isolated fever and (ii) detection of EV was more frequent in the blood than in CSF in neonates and infants with isolated fever, sepsis or meningitis. However, the pathophysiology of EV infections is poorly understood and little work has been done on the inflammatory response to these infections. In EV meningitis, the inflammatory response has been studied primarily in children infected with enterovirus A71 (EV-A71). Indeed, in these children, inappropriate cytokine secretion (cytokine storm) leads to severe neurological and cardiopulmonary damage, which can progress to death. The study of the inflammatory response during meningitis due to other types of EV remains poorly The objective of BLEDI-CYTOKINES (ancillary study of the BLEDI study) is to study the inflammatory response during EV meningitis in neonates, infants and children, as assessed by cytokine levels in blood and cerebrospinal fluid, by comparing case-controls from an existing cohort.

Title: A Prospective Household observational cohort study of Influenza, Respiratory Syncytial virus and other respiratory pathogens community burden and Transmission dynamics in South Africa (The PHIRST Study) This study will improve understanding of the community burden of influenza, RSV, pertussis, tuberculosis and pneumococcal infection in South Africa. It will also provide data on the carriage prevalence of meningococcus and diphtheria. The data generated from this study will also provide important information on the transmission dynamics of influenza, RSV, pertussis and pneumococcus in the community allowing to better strategize interventions (including targeted vaccination strategies) and evaluate their potential impact. Moreover, there is an absence of prospective data on tuberculosis infection from high tuberculosis burden countries. The data generated will both inform modelling of transmission, sample size for prevention studies and surveillance assessing the impact of the National Tuberculosis Control Program.

The investigator hypothesizes that oxidative stress responses to West Nile virus infection in the central nervous system determine the severity of infection and the long-term neurological, neuropsychological and functional sequelae of West Nile Neuroinvasive Disease.

A new enzymatic assay was developed by NMD Diagnostics for rapid diagnosis of Enteroviral CNS infection. This study will compare this assay to RT-PCR, by testing human CSF samples taken from children at the ER who are undergoing a spinal tap due to suspicion of meningitis.

At any time, around 10% of people carry meningococcal bacteria in the nose and throat, which can cause meningitis, blood poisoning and other serious illnesses. Most people carry these bacteria and never become ill, yet a very small proportion go on to develop these illnesses which can result in life long disabilities or death. The mechanism by which this happens is poorly understood and has been studied in various ways, usually focussing on the bacteria or on the individual, but none has given a definitive answer. This study will be the first of its kind and will assess the interaction between the host and the bacteria at the genetic level, through genetic mapping, helping us to understand what makes some people susceptible to this infection.

Autoimmune encephalitis (AE) is caused by abnormal immune response mediated by autoimmune antibodies of patients, which can be detected by a serial of autoimmune antibodies[4,5,6,7]. At present, the traditional infection diagnosis mainly relies on microbial culture method, which has the characteristics of long cycle, high cost, low detection rate and complex detection process. About 30-60% of encephalitis have unknown etiology[2,3]. On the other hand, the diagnosis and classification of noninfectious encephalitis mainly depend on the detection of autoimmune antibodies, the scope of diagnosis and differential diagnosis is limited, and the relationship between autoimmune encephalitis and infection factors is still unclear. Metagenomics sequencing (mNGS) is a new method that does not rely on microbial culture and can directly detect pathogenic nucleic acids. It has the characteristics of fast, accurate, high throughput, no preference for different pathogen detection, and can detect known and unknown pathogens at the same time. Nowadays, mNGS is widely used in the field of pathogen detection.

DeepDoc is an AI-based decision support system for the early etiology diagnosis of neurological diseases using clinical data points from patients admitted to hospital within 24 hours.This study aims to evaluate whether the diagnosis of the DeepDoc AI-based decision support system is better than the doctor's initial diagnosis by a multi-center, superiority diagnostic study.

Maternal antibodies (measles and meningitis C) may wane in the first six months after birth. Geometric mean titers(GMTs) of measles and meningitis C. Follow-up on 0 month, 3rd month,5th month and 7th month after birth.