The significance of determination of adenosine deaminase in diagnosis of cerebrospinal fluid from infantile tuberculous meningitis patients

Objective To investigate the clinical significance of determination of adenosine deaminase (ADA) from cerebrospinal fluid in diagnosis of infantile tuberculous meningitis patients. Methods The activity of ADA in cerebrospinal fluid of 37 patients with tuberculous meningitis,38 patients with bacterial meningitis,40 patients with viral meningitis and 40 patients without encephalitis (as control) were determined with automatic biochemical analyzer. Results The levels of cerebrospinal fluid ADA activity in patients with tuberculous meningitis were significantly higher than the other patients with bacterial meningitis, viral enteritis and the control (P0.01). Taking ADA8U/L as a positive threshold, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predicative value and negative predicative value were 81.1%, 98.3%, 94.2%,93.8%, 94.4%, respectively. Conclusion ADA in cerebrospinal fluid is an important reference indicator in diagnosis of infantile tuberculous meningitis.