Usefulness of the FilmArray meningitis/encephalitis panel for the medical care of neonates and young infants with aseptic meningitis

Abstract

We investigated the usefulness of the FilmArray^Ⓡ meningitis/encephalitis panel for neonates and young infants with aseptic meningitis. One hundred fifty-two patients under three months of age who presented with fever underwent cerebrospinal fluid examination, where 27 exhibited pleocytosis and 125 had normal cell counts. Of the 27 cases with pleocytosis, 15 were diagnosed with aseptic meningitis；10 patients were positive for the panel（enterovirus［EV］in all cases）, and five patients were negative. The median duration of antibiotic administration in the EV-positive group was 2.4 days, which was significantly shorter than that in the respective negative group（4.8 days）（p＜0.04）. FE-M/A conducted in 15 of 125 patients without pleocytosis identified one patient with EV infection and two patients with human parechovirus infection. The panel may be helpful to reduce unnecessary antimicrobial administration.