Changes of serial cerebrospinal fluid immunoglobulin parameters in neurological disorders

Serial cerebrospinal fluid immunoglobulin parameters were determined with the method of single radial immunodiffusion in 419 cases of 20 kinds of neurological diseases. The results were compared with the normal values of 36 subjects of corresponding ages and statistically analyzed. The authors believe that the elevated CSF Ig can occur in the following five pathological processes: (1) Ig endogenous synthesis within the central nervous system. It is the characteristic change of the parameters in MS patients; (2) inflammatory diffusion, it can be seen in cases of general inflammation with normal blood-brain-barrier (BBB); (3) impaired BBB diffusion, acute hemorrhagic and ischemic cerebrovascular diseases belong to this pattern; (4) inflammatory diffusion with BBB impairment, such as various meningitis and other acute inflammatory diseases of the CNS; (5) Ig endogenous synthesis in the CNS with impaired BBB diffusion, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome and sporadic encephalitis. The levels of IgG, IgA, IgM and C3 change correspondingly in the various neurological disorders. The patients with positive CSF IgM found by the SRID technique are regarded to have serious impairment of BBB.