[Laboratory diagnosis of lymphocytic meningitis]

Abstract

Lymphocytic meningitis, mainly those with an acute and benign course, are caused by viruses. In our area, the most commonly involved agents are enteroviruses, herpes simplex, varicella zoster and Toscana viruses. Nucleic acids amplification techniques (NAAT) are the methods of choice to diagnose viral meningitis from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples. They are more rapid and sensitive, and indeed, they are not influenced by the viability of the virus in the clinical specimen as traditional methods are. The development of commercial equipments, the degree of automation, and the use of real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) systems are the most important premises to choose the molecular method in each laboratory. Recently, commercial kits of real-time PCR are available for the detection of enteroviruses and herpesviruses, which are the most frequently viruses involved in meningitis. Although NAAT from the clinical sample have replaced cell culture for diagnostic purposes, the combination of both methods remain useful. When the detection of the causal agent from the CSF sample is not possible, other specimens (pharyngeal exudates, stools) or serological methods can be used. Serology is the reference method for meningitis caused by West Nile virus and lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, which are less frequently detected in our area.