Archives of disease in childhood
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Review Meta Analysis
Meta-analysis of bacterial meningitis score validation studies.
The Bacterial Meningitis Score, a derived and validated clinical decision rule, identifies children with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pleocytosis who are at very low risk of bacterial meningitis. Low-risk features include the following: negative CSF Gram stain, CSF absolute neutrophil count (ANC) <1000 cells/μl, CSF protein <80 mg/dl, peripheral blood ANC <10 000 cells/μl and no seizure at or prior to initial presentation. The study objective of the present work was to calculate the performance of the Bacterial Meningitis Score by performing a meta-analysis of all published validation studies. ⋯ The Bacterial Meningitis Score is a highly accurate clinical scoring system that could be used to assist clinical decision making for the management of children with CSF pleocytosis.