Objective To explore the significance of cerebrospinal fluid lactic acid (LA) and beta2-microglobulin (β2-MG) on the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis,and study their values compared with white blood cell (WBC) or protein in cerebrospinal fluid.Methods Thirty patients with bacterial meningitis were selected as bacterial meningitis group,and 30 surgical patients requiring spinal anesthesia were as control group.The level of cerebrospinal fluid LA was detected by Vitros950 automatic analyzer,and the level of cerebrospinal fluid β2-MG was detected by automatic AIA1800 enzyme immune analyzer.SPSS 13.0 and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve) was used to analyze the data.Results The cerebrospinal fluid LA level in bacterial meningitis group was 1.53 (0.50) mmol/L,in control group was 1.11 (0.34) mmol/L,and there was statistical difference (P ＜ 0.05).The cerebrospinal fluid β 2-MG level in bacterial meningitis group was 2.61 (1.00) mg/L,in control group was 0.83 (0.45) mg/L,and there was statistical difference (P ＜ 0.01).For bacterial meningitis diagnosis,the areas under the ROC curve of cerebrospinal fluid WBC,protein,LA and β2-MG were 0.760,0.936,0.705 and 0.960.The best boundary value of LA in bacterial meningitis diagnosis was 1.78 mmol/L with a sensitivity of 68.0％ and specificity of 88.9％.The best boundary value of β2-MG in bacterial meningitis diagnosis was 1.756 mg/L,with a sensitivity of 92.0％ and specificity of 99.4％.Conclusions Both cerebrospinal fluid LA and β 2-MG is valuable in the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis.But for the diagnostic value,cerebrospinal fluid LA is not as good as WBC or protein in cerebrospinal fluid,but β2-MG is better than them.It has high sensitivity and specificity.