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This study investigates the clinical and paraclinical characteristics of patients with TBM and BM.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Adult patients diagnosed with either TBM or BM who were admitted to two referral hospitals between March 2015 and October 2022, were included, and the characteristics of the patients were analyzed.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Seventy patients formed the study group, 28 with TBM and 42 with BM, were included. TBM patients had a 2.06-fold (95% CI: 1.26 to 3.37,\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      -value: 0.003) higher risk of altered consciousness and a 4.80-fold (95% CI: 1.98 to 11.61,\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      -value:\u2009&lt;\u20090.001) higher risk of extra-neural involvement as compared to BM patients. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis revealed a significantly higher percentage of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) in TBM compared to BM (Standardized mean difference: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.18 to 1.20,\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      -value: 0.008). Neuroimaging findings indicated higher risks of hydrocephalus (\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      -value: 0.002), infarction (\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      -value: 0.029), and meningeal enhancement (\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      -value: 0.012) in TBM compared to BM. Moreover, TBM patients had a 67% (95% CI: 21% to 131%,\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      -value:0.002) longer median length of hospital stay and a significantly higher risk of unfavorable outcomes (Risk ratio: 6.96, 95% CI: 2.65 to 18.26,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009&lt;\u20090.001).\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Our study emphasizes that TBM patients displayed increased frequencies of altered consciousness, PMN dominance in CSF, extra-neural involvement, hydrocephalus, meningeal enhancement, and brain infarction. The findings emphasize the diagnostic difficulties and underscore the importance of cautious differentiation between these two conditions to guide appropriate treatment strategies.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s12879-024-09345-6","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,25]],"date-time":"2024-04-25T11:02:44Z","timestamp":1714042964000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Chronic meningitis in adults: a comparison between neurotuberculosis and neurobrucellosis"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"24","author":[{"given":"Matin","family":"Shirazinia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0766-4286","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fereshte","family":"Sheybani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"HamidReza","family":"Naderi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mahboubeh","family":"Haddad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pouria","family":"Hajipour","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Farzaneh","family":"Khoroushi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,25]]},"reference":[{"issue":"6","key":"9345_CR1","first-page":"1290","volume":"18","author":"JR Zunt","year":"2012","unstructured":"Zunt JR, Baldwin KJ. 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Due to the nature of this study and the preserved anonymity of patients, a waiver of informed consent was obtained by the Ethics Committee of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. The study was conducted following the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"The authors declare no competing interests.","order":4,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"441"}}