Diagnostic Tests

To test if the rash is the meningitis rash press a glass tumbler onto the rash and roll it over the rash.  The meningitis rash should not fade under pressure. 

 Image courtesy of centres.exeter.ac.uk/shc/tumblertest.gif under the terms of the GNU-Free Documentation License.

CT scan

In suspected meningitis a Computed Tomography scan will be carried out to look at the pressure on the brain from the inflammation of the meninges.

 Image courtesy of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computed_tomography under the terms of the GNU-Free Documentation License.

Kernig and Brudzinski's Test

Lie the patient in the supine position (on their back) with their hip and knee flexed to 90 degrees.   The positive Kernig's sign in meningitis is that passive extention of the knee is prevented due to the pain.   The positive Brudzinski's sign in meningitis is that flexion of the neck leads to an involuntary flexion of the knee and the hip.

These signs very rarely occur in other diseases.

Joint Accentuation Maneuver 

The patient should rapidly rotate their head from side to side.   In meningitis this should make the patients headache worse.   If it does not affect the headache then meningitis is unlikely.

Blood Tests and Lumbar Puncture

In hospital blood tests and a lumbar puncture are carried out to confirm if the disease is meningitis.   They are used to search from the type of bacteria present in the blood or cerebrospinal fluid.