J Infect Chemother (2009) 15:92–98 © Japanese Society of Chemotherapy and The Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases 2009 DOI 10.1007/s10156-009-0670-3 ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Rapid detection of eight causative pathogens for the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis by real-time PCR signifi cantly better than that with cultures in patients with antibiotic administration (χ2 = 18.3182; P = 0.0000). In con-clusion, detection with real-time PCR is useful for rapidly identifying the causative pathogens of meningitis and for examining the clinical course of chemotherapy. Key words Real-time PCR · Bacterial meningitis · cerebro-spinal fl uid(CSF) · Neonate · Adul