Table 1 Demographics, initial principal diagnosis, infectious pathogens, and comorbidities of patients with meningitis and/or encephalitis with and without identified infectious pathogens
Demographics and admission characteristics | Total cohort (n = 372) | Patients with identified pathogens (n = 159) | Patients without identified pathogens (n = 213) | p-value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Age (years; median, IQR) | 54 | 36–71 | 58 | 38–72 | 51 | 35–70 | 0.217 |
Male (n, %) | 215 | 57.8 | 85 | 53.5 | 130 | 61.0 | 0.143 |
Referral from other hospital (n, %) | 101 | 27.2 | 39 | 24.5 | 62 | 29.1 | 0.326 |
Admission via emergency room (n, %) | 324 | 87.1 | 139 | 87.4 | 185 | 86.8 | 0.872 |
Suspected meningitis and/or encephalitis as reason of admission (n, %) | 262 | 70.4 | 113 | 71.1 | 149 | 69.9 | 0.815 |
Glasgow coma score on day of diagnosis (median, IQR) | 14 | 7–15 | 13 | 4–15 | 14 | 11–15 | 0.004 |
Initial clinical diagnosis | |||||||
Meningitis (n, %) | 170 | 45.7 | 81 | 50.9 | 89 | 41.8 | 0.193 |
Encephalitis (n, %) | 136 | 36.6 | 51 | 32.1 | 85 | 39.9 | |
Meningoencephalitis (n, %) | 66 | 17.7 | 27 | 17.0 | 39 | 18.3 | |
Infectious pathogens | |||||||
Bacterial (n, %) | 71 | 19.1 | 71 | 44.6 | |||
Streptococcus pneumoniae (n, %) | 27 | 7.3 | 27 | 17.0 | |||
Borrelia burgdorferi (n, %) | 14 | 3.8 | 14 | 8.8 | |||
Neisseria meningitidis (n, %) | 5 | 1.3 | 5 | 3.1 | |||
Others (n, %) (Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus agalactiae, Haemophilus influenzae, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Enterobacter cloacae, Enterococcus faecalis, Listeria monocytogenes) | 25 | 6.7 | 25 | 15.7 | |||
Viral (n, %) | 85 | 22.8 | 85 | 53.5 | |||
Varicella zoster (n, %) | 25 | 6.7 | 25 | 15.7 | |||
Herpes simplex 1 & 2 (n, %) | 22 | 5.9 | 22 | 13.8 | |||
Enterovirus (n, %) | 21 | 5.6 | 21 | 13.2 | |||
Others (n, %) (FSME-virus, Human herpesvirus 6, JC-virus) | 17 | 4.6 | 17 | 10.7 | |||
Protozoal (all Toxoplasma gondii; n, %) | 3 | 0.8 | 3 | 1.9 | |||
Comorbidities | |||||||
Charlson Comorbidity Index [16] (median, IQR) | 0 | 0–2 | 0 | 0–2 | 0 | 0–2 | 0.913 |
Immunosuppression (n, %) | 111 | 29.8 | 58 | 36.5 | 53 | 24.9 | 0.017 |
History of drug abuse (n, %) | 27 | 7.3 | 11 | 6.9 | 16 | 7.5 | 0.827 |
History of prior CNS disorders (n, %) | 149 | 40.1 | 67 | 42.1 | 82 | 38.5 | 0.478 |
Epileptic disorder (n, %) | 65 | 17.5 | 29 | 18.2 | 36 | 16.9 | 0.737 |
Prior meningitis and/or encephalitis (n, %) | 28 | 7.5 | 15 | 9.4 | 13 | 6.1 | 0.228 |
Prior autoimmune CNS disease (n, %) | 3 | 0.8 | 2 | 1.3 | 1 | 0.5 | |
Prior Dementia (n, %) | 11 | 3.0 | 5 | 3.1 | 6 | 2.8 | |
Prior leukoencephalopathy (n, %) | 46 | 12.4 | 22 | 13.8 | 24 | 11.3 | 0.457 |
Prior stroke (n, %) | 23 | 6.2 | 4 | 2.5 | 19 | 8.9 | 0.015 |
Prior intracranial hemorrhage (n, %) | 13 | 3.5 | 7 | 4.4 | 6 | 2.8 | 0.410 |
Prior neurodegenerative disorder other than dementia (n, %) | 7 | 1.9 | 2 | 1.3 | 5 | 2.4 | |
Prior brain tumor (n, %) | 8 | 2.2 | 7 | 4.4 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.023 |