Serum uric acid levels in patients with infections of central nervous system

The lower levels of serum uric acid (UA) correlated with meningitis have been reported. However, comparison of UA levels among different kinds of infections of central nervous system (CNS) and changes of UA levels before and after treatment are unknown. Our study aimed to investigate the antioxidant status of serum UA in five common types of CNS infections. We retrospectively evaluated serum UA levels of 399 patients with different types of CNS infections including viral meningitis or meningoencephalitis (VM), brain cysticercosis (BC), tuberculous meningitis or meningoencephalitis (TM), cryptococcus meningitis or meningoencephalitis (CM) and bacterial meningitis or meningoencephalitis (BM), and 119 healthy controls. The changes of serum UA were examined and analyzed. The serum levels of UA in patients with CNS infections were significantly lower than those in normal subjects and among in TM, CM and BM groups were apparently lower when compared with VM and BC groups; otherwise, after effective therapy, serum UA levels were obviously higher than before. Our findings showed that patients with CNS infections had lower serum UA levels, which was independent of the classification and the serum UA levels increased obviously after valid treatment, the variation of UA levels might be considered as an indicator of clinical curative effect in patients with CNS infections.