Value of MRI enhanced FLAIR sequence examination combined with CSF TNF-α detection in the early diagnosis of neonatal purulent meningitis

This study aimed to investigate the value of MRI enhanced fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) combined with TNF-α in cerebrospinal fluid in the diagnosis of neonatal purulent meningitis. Fifty neonates with purulent meningitis were randomly selected in the purulency group, 50 patients with viral meningitis (VM) in the virus group and 50 neonates without purulent meningitis in the no meningitis group. All neonates were selected from April 2015 to May 2018 in Women and Children's Hospital (Linyi, China). Clinical baseline data of the three groups were compared, and logistic regression analysis was conducted to analyze the risk factors of the disease. The risk factors of neonatal purulent meningitis include white bold cell count, TNF-α, encephaledema, encephaledema combined with abnormal EEG, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and FLAIR sequential apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). TNF-α in cerebrospinal fluid combined with FLAIR sequential ADC obtained higher sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, diagnostic accuracy and AUC than single TNF-α in cerebrospinal fluid examination or single FLAIR sequence. MRI enhanced FLAIR sequence scan combined with TNF-α in cerebrospinal fluid has the highest rate in early diagnosis of neonatal purulent meningitis, and it is worthy of clinical promotion.