A comprehensive clinical examination is the basis for selecting further diagnostic steps:
- General physical examination – including blood pressure, pulse, body temperature, body weight, body height; furthermore:
- Neurological examination [due tosymptom: meningismus (painful neck stiffness)] [due todifferential diagnoses:
- Bacterial meningoencephalitis (combined inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) and meninges (meningitis) triggered by bacteria).
- Chronic meningitis (meningitis, which can be triggered by many different pathogens; these include Borrelia, Treponema pallidum (syphilis) or the HI virus).
- Empyema (collection of pus in a body cavity; can occur in the skull subdurally (under the hard meninges) and epidurally (on the hard meninges))
- Encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).
- Brain abscess (accumulation of pus in the brain (headache, nausea, vomiting, epileptic seizures, clouding of consciousness)).
- Meningitis (as a complication of various systemic diseases such as sarcoidosis (synonyms: Boeck’s disease; Schaumann-Besnier’s disease; systemic disease of connective tissue (skin, lungs and lymph nodes) with granuloma formation) or in the context of pneumonia)]
Square brackets [ ] indicate possible pathologic (pathological) physical findings.