Liu et al reported a nomogram for distinguishing tuberculous meningitis from other forms of infectious meningitis. The authors are from Ningxia Medical University and affiliated hospitals in China.
Patient selection: adult with suspected infectious meningitis
Parameters:
(1) weight loss
(2) disease duration in days
(3) disturbance in consciousness
(4) percent lymphocytes in CSF
(5) CSF glucose in mmol/L
(6) cerebral infarction
Parameter
Finding
Points
weight loss
no
0
yes
10
disease duration
<= 5 days
0
> 5 days
9.1
disturbance of consciousness
no
0
yes
5
percent lymphocytes in CSF
<= 50%
0
> 50%
7.8
CSF glucose
>= 2.2 mmol/L
0
< 2.2 mmol/L
9.8
cerebral infarction
no
0
yes
8.1
total score =
= SUM(points for all of the parameters)
Interpretation:
• minimum score: 0
• maximum score: 49.8
value of X =
= (0.3495 * (score)) - 7.736
probability of tuberculous meningitis =
= 1 / (1+EXP((-1) * X))
Performance:
• The area under the ROC curve is 0.96.
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