Meningism
Meningism is a set of symptoms similar to those of meningitis but not caused by meningitis. Whereas meningitis is inflammation of the meninges (membranes that cover the central nervous system), meningism is caused by nonmeningitic irritation of the meninges, usually associated with acute febrile illness, especially in children and adolescents. Meningism involves the triad (3-symptom syndrome) of nuchal rigidity (neck stiffness), photophobia (intolerance of bright light) and headache. It therefore requires differentiating from other CNS problems with similar symptoms, including meningitis and some types of intracranial hemorrhage. Related clinical signs include Kernig's sign and three signs all named Brudzinski's sign.

Although nosologic coding systems, such as ICD-10 and MeSH, define meningism/meningismus as meningitis-like but in fact not meningitis, many physicians use the term "meningism" in a loose sense clinically to refer to any meningitis-like set of symptoms "before the cause is definitively known". In this sense, the word implies "suspected meningitis". The words "meningeal symptoms" can be used instead to avoid ambiguity, thus reserving the term "meningism" for its strict sense.
Q1441305
symptom
Concept
Q48143
meningitis
Concept
Q101991
inflammation
Concept
Q268930
meninges
Concept
Q38933
febrile
Concept
Q179630
syndrome
Concept
Q841878
neck stiffness
Concept
Q281289
photophobia
Concept
Q86
headache
Concept
Q837512
differentiating
Concept
Q426199
intracranial hemorrhage
Concept
Q631556
Kernig's sign
CEL
Q992274
Brudzinski's sign
Concept
Q845300
nosologic
Concept
Q32069
Meningism
Concept
Q32069
Meningism
Concept
+3^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
3
NUMBER
-10^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
-10
NUMBER
symptoms and signs
symptoms and signs
symptoms and signs
symptoms and signs