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Introduction: Bacterial Meningitis (BM) is a serious health problem worldwide with high mortality and permanent longterm neurological sequelae. Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) analysis is the cornerstone for diagnosing BM, but the lack of specificity creates a difficult clinical scenario for initiating proper treatment. Empiric antibiotic use in patients with suspected meningitis at primary care settings decreases the yield of CSF culture and alters CSF cytological and biochemical findings, making it further difficult to diagnose BM. To overcome this difficulty, there is a need for other biochemical markers with higher sensitivity and specificity. Aim: To determine the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of Procalcitonin (PCT) in serum and CSF in patients with BM and compare its diagnostic accuracy in both sample types. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Internal Medicine at a tertiary care centre in eastern India from September 2018 to August 2020. A total of 82 adult patients with meningitis were recruited as per the protocol, and CSF analysis was done along with estimation of PCT in serum and CSF. Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve analysis of serum and CSF PCT was used to determine sensitivity and specificity with a 95% confidence interval. Results: Out of the 82 patients recruited, 30 (36.6%) had BM. CSF PCT with a cut-off value of >0.45 ng/mL had a sensitivity of 86.7% and specificity of 92.3%. The sensitivity of serum PCT with a cut-off value of >0.6 ng/mL was 83.3%, and specificity was 86.5%. There was no statistically significant difference in sensitivity and specificity between CSF and serum PCT in patients with BM (p-value=0.7988). Conclusion: Both serum and CSF PCT were found to have high sensitivity and specificity as markers for diagnosing BM without any statistically significant difference between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural produces from fruits and vegetables are mostly preserved by conventional processing, recently being the most cost effective means confirming microbial safety. Mangoes (Mangifera indica L.) are good source of nutrients, but huge qualitative loss found during the thermal processing. The aim of the study was focused on the inactivation of microbes during ohmic heating in different concentration of mango pulp (6, 10 and 14° brix). Mango pulp inoculated with bacteria and yeast/mold were subjected to ohmic heating with voltage gradients of 10, 15 and 20 V/cm and temperature of 60, 70 and 80° C. However in conventional heating, no of microbes found after 10 min treatment time at 90° C in high pulp content (14° brix). But the number of bacteria and yeast/mold reduced by increasing voltage gradient and temperature as 20 V/cm and 80° C was found to be effective among the different processes. As the sugar concentration increased (14° brix) the microbial number was also decreased due to less water activity. The bacterial load was found to be 80 cfu/ml and 7 cfu/ml for yeast/mold load, which was minimum among all the ohmic heated mango pulp samples (20 V/cm, 80° C and 14° brix) with a treatment time of 340 s. The results recommended that the lethal effect on microorganisms due to ohmic heating was not only due to thermal effect, but also a non-thermal effect (electroporation). Ohmic heating can be effectively used for the pasteurization of mango pulp, the conclusion made from the above results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]