CONCENTRATIONS OF NUCLEOTIDES, NUCLEOSIDES, PURINE-BASES AND URATE INCEREBROSPINAL-FLUID OF CHILDREN WITH MENINGITIS

The release of agents mediating inflammation in meningitis may bring a bout neuronal hypoxia, under which circumstances ATP concentrations de crease and its degradation products increase and are released into the cerebrospinal fluid. In this study of alterations in neuronal energy metabolism in meningitis, AMP, IMP, inosine, adenosine, guanosine, ade nine, guanine, hypoxanthine, xanthine and urate were determined by hig h performance liquid chromatography in the cerebrospinal fluid of 54 c hildren aged between 1 month and 13 years suffering from meningitis (2 5 viral, 24 bacterial and 5 tuberculous cases) and 63 controls. Compar ed to the controls, patients with viral meningitis exhibited high conc entrations of IMP, adenosine, guanosine, adenine, guanine and xanthine ; patients with bacterial meningitis exhibited high concentrations of IMP, inosine, guanosine, adenosine, hypoxanthine, xanthine and urate; and patients with tuberculous meningitis exhibited high concentrations of AMP, guanosine, xanthine and urate. Viral and bacterial cases did not differ significantly for any of the metabolites studied. AMP and u rate concentrations were significantly higher in patients with tubercu lous cases compared with viral or bacterial meningitis cases.