How to Diagnose Meningitis

Doctors must diagnose a meningitis patient aggressively. Meningitis has many causes and every cause calls for a different set of treatments. Time is of the essence and a diagnosis is the first step to a patient's recovery.

Things You'll Need

• Hospital facilities

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Instructions

Determine Medical History of the Meningitis Patient

• 1

  Ask the patient whether she has any tendencies toward different kinds of infections. This would include any conditions the patient currently suffers from or has suffered from in the past.

• 2

  Find out whether the patient has come across any organisms recently that may be responsible for the meningitis infection. This medical history would include recent contact with certain animals, recent vacations to different parts of the world or anything else out of the ordinary.

• 3

  Ask the patient whether there has been any contact recently with someone else who may have been infected. If the source of the infection is known, the doctor will better be able to diagnose the exact cause of the illness.

Perform a Physical Exam on the Meningitis Patient

• 4

  Record which of the common meningitis symptoms the patient experiences, which symptoms they do not experience and any symptoms that are out of the ordinary. The lack or presence of a certain symptom, no matter how small, may make the difference in the diagnosis.

• 5

  Have the patient lie down on his or her back. Tell the patient to lift up their head and touch their chest with their chin. Make note if the patient can accomplish this task. If the patient can, make note of whether the patient needed to lift their legs up to do so. This is a common test for meningitis.

Run Tests on the Meningitis Patient

• 6

  Perform a lumbar puncture on the patient. The lumbar puncture, also called a spinal tap, takes a sample of the patient's spinal fluid. This fluid is then sent to the lab to find out which, if any, organisms are alive inside. Almost all meningitis patients will be required to have a lumbar puncture.

• 7

  Run additional tests to help diagnose the meningitis patient, depending on the circumstances. Examples of such tests include: a blood culture, a computed tomography (CT), a magnetic resonance image (MRI) or a biopsy of a skin rash.