specific anti mumps antibodies (igg & igm) in cerebrospinal fluid of mumps meningoencephalitic children

mumps infection is endemic in iran. our objective was to evaluate the presence of anti mumps antibodies ( igm & igg) in cerebrospinal fluid in mumps meningoencephalitic children. a prospective/cross-sectional study was performed in tehran, iran (2003 to 2004) and serum anti mumps antibodies (igm) were detected (quantitive; elisa) in meningoencephaltis patients. specific anti mumps antibodies (igm & igg) were detected in cerebrospinal fluids of mumps meningoencephalitis cases. 43 meningoencephalitic patients were tested (59.2% male and 40.8% female). the age of patients was 79.96 ± 4.7 month. 23 (78.7%) cases had specific mumps igm in serum. none of cases had igm antibodies in csf. anti mumps igg antibody was detected in csf of 7.5% (2/23) cases. we detected lower than expected frequency of local immunity to mumps virus in csf of our cases. for better serologic diagnosis we recommend more sensitive methods like virus detection (pcr) or short-term culture of lymphocytes from cerebrospinal fluid in future studies.