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To assess whether cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of heparin-binding protein (HBP) can predict bacterial meningitis, researchers analyzed CSF samples in a prospective cohort of 145 adult patients with clinically suspected meningitis and in a retrospective cohort of 16 patients with bacterial meningitis and 13 patients with viral encephalitis at two hospitals in Sweden. Patients were divided into five groups: bacterial meningitis (41), viral encephalitis (19), viral meningitis (10), neuroborreliosis (7), and controls with normal CSF white blood cell (WBC) counts (97 patients).
Median HBP levels were significantly higher in patients with bacterial meningitis (376.0 ng/mL) than in those with viral encephalitis (5.0 ng/mL), viral meningitis (4.…