Introduction: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals are at increased risk for all forms of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB), including tuberculous meningitis (TBM). This study aimed to investigate the frequency of HIV in patients with TBM.
Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Library were searched for articles including relevant data. Stata version 14.0 (StataCorp, College Station, Texas, USA) was used to analyse the data.
Results: Twenty studies were identified. The pooled frequency of HIV among adult patients with TBM was 38.0% (95% CI: 21.0-57.0; I2 = 97%). In children (under the age of 15 years), 6.0% (95% CI: 1.0-13.0; I2 = 0.0%) had HIV infection. In patients with bacterial meningitis other than TBM, 36.0% (95% CI: 19.0-53.0; I2 = 100%) were HIV-infected.
Conclusions: A relatively high frequency of HIV in patients with TBM was indicated by our study. Establishment of diagnostic criteria and effective treatment strategies for TBM/HIV co-infection are recommended for better management of patients with TBM+HIV.
Keywords: VIH; human immunodeficiency virus; méningite tuberculeuse; revue systématique; systematic review; tuberculous meningitis.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.