Hung-Chin Tsai^1,2, Yao-Shen Chen¹, Susan Shin-Jung Lee¹, Yu-Hung Lin¹, Shue-Ren Wann¹, Cheng Len Sy¹ and Yung-Ching Liu¹

¹Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. ²Graduate Institute of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic of China.

Abstract

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a multifunctional cytokine that has well-defined mitogenic, motogenic, and morphogenic functions on the epithelial cells. Strong increases of HGF concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are only present in patients with acute bacterial meningitis. We report a 15-year-old young man with drug resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae meningitis complicated with right 6th cranial nerve palsy. He presented with fever, headache and neck stiffness for 3 days and was treated with intravenous antimicrobial agents including linezolid and dexamethasone successfully. An association between CSF HGF concentrations and CSF proteins is observed (r = 0.897, p = 0.039. Pearson correlation test). This result showed that HGF level in CSF might act as an additional marker in patients with bacterial meningitis.