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Is the blood–CSF barrier altered in disease?
Author(s) -
Seyfert S.,
Faulstich A.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
acta neurologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.967
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1600-0404
pISSN - 0001-6314
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0404.2003.00119.x
Subject(s) - cerebrospinal fluid , lumbar puncture , lumbar , blood–brain barrier , medicine , albumin , csf albumin , pathology , communicating hydrocephalus , hydrocephalus , gastroenterology , central nervous system , surgery
Objectives – To illustrate the influence of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow on lumbar CSF protein concentration and to test for an altered blood–CSF barrier permeability as additional influence. Patients and methods – Consecutively hospitalized patients with normotensive hydrocephalus ( n = 21) underwent lumbar puncture with CSF being sampled in sequential portions. CSF/blood quotients of albumin (QAlb) and of immunoglobulin G (QIgG) were compared intra‐individually and with calculated values from a reference patient sample. Results and conclusion – QAlb and QIgG of intra‐individual sequential portions correlated highly with each other (median r = 0.95), suggesting lumbar CSF flow as the main thecal determinant of lumbar QAlb and QIgG variation. In addition, QIgG, relative to QAlb, was significantly lower in study patients compared with a reference patient sample ( P = 0.002), implying an alteration of the blood–CSF barrier permeability as a minor determinant of QAlb and QIgG variation in study patients.