Molecular Diagnosis of the Central Nervous System (CNS) Infections
Abstract
Central nervous system (CNS) infections such as meningitis and encephalitis are medical emergencies that require rapid diagnosis of the causative pathogen to guide early and adequate treatment since a delay in implementing an adequate antimicrobial therapy can lead to death. The current microbiological diagnostic methods based on culture or antigen detection have important limitations in their capacity to accurately identify the different potential pathogens causing CNS and, in the time, to obtaining results. Rapid syndromic molecular arrays have been developed. The main advantage of using a meningoencephalitis panel based in a multiplex test is that includes bacteria, viruses and fungi, covering the most prevalent microorganisms causing meningitis and encephalitis and the turn-around time is circa 1h. The use of these multiplex-PCR based tools is reviewed and the advantages and disadvantages of this technique are discussed.
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The reduced time to obtain a diagnostic result has improved antimicrobial and antiviral treatment, enabling de-escalation of empiric therapy.
“The reduced time to obtain a diagnostic result has improved antimicrobial and antiviral treatment, enabling de-escalation of empiric therapy [3,6,8,9].”
From Performance Evaluation of Multiplex Molecular Syndromic Panel vs. Singleplex PCR for Diagnosis of Acute Central Nervous System Infections (2025) · cites this paper as [3]
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Gabrielli, L., Tomaiuolo, M., Banchini, I., Balboni, A., Liberatore, A., Lanna, F., Cantiani, A., Bertoldi, A., Pavoni, M., Manzoli, L., et al. (2025) · Microorganisms · doi:10.3390/microorganisms13040892 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“The literature reports that an advantage of using molecular tests is their ability to provide accurate results in patients who have received antimicrobial therapy prior to lumbar puncture as negative results obtained with conventional methods, such as bacterial culture, may occur in such cases [3].”
Influential
- Authors
- Vila, J., Bosch, J., & Muñoz-Almagro, C.
- Affiliations
- Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ES)
- ORCID
- Bosch, Jordi
- Venue
- Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-10
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 403-410
- ISSN
- 0213-005X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3017416636
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 0.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- es
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica (publishedVersion)
- Enfermedades infecciosas y microbiologia clinica (English ed ) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Instituto de Salud Carlos III
- Subdirección General de Redes y Centros de Investigación Cooperativa
- Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
- Spanish Network for Research in Infectious Diseases (REIPI RD16/0016/0010)
- Spanish Network of Epidemiology and Public Health, CIBERESP
- European Development Regional Fund
- Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca of the Generalitat de Catalunya
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Clinical Biochemistry › Bacterial Identification and Susceptibility Testing
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Microbiology › Bacterial Infections and Vaccines
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Infectious Encephalopathies and Encephalitis
- Keywords
- central nervous system infection, meningitis, encephalitis, multiplex PCR, molecular diagnosis, rapid pathogen detection, antimicrobial therapy timing
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