[Characteristics of the cerebrospinal fluid in the evaluation of possible mechanism of brain lesions in suppurative meningitis of meningococcal and pneumococcal etiologies].

The enzymological parameters of the CSF were studied and compared in patients with purulent meningococcal and pneumococcal meningitis in addition to the detection of the CSF levels characteristic of the dead patients. The level of enzymorachia was shown to depend on the degree of leukocyte degradation as well as on the lipid peroxidation intensity in the CSF. These data were obtained on the basis of measuring the content of cerebral and leukocytic enzymes in the acute period and on days 7-10 of the disease. It has been also noted that evident signs of meningoencephalitis are detectable even on days 7-10 according to the enzymic levels. As compared to pneumococcal infection, the lysis of leukocytes in patients with meningococcal infection turned out more noticeable, being maximal in the dead.