[Behavior of cerebrospinal fluid proteins in degenerative diseases]

132 cerebrospinals fluids from patients with degenerative diseases of the central nervous system have been analyzed for protein distribution in agar gel electrophoresis. After subdivision into diagnostically well defined groups these patients were compared with 48 with metabolic and psychiatric diseases and with 79 normal controls. The majority of diagnostic groups showed a tendency to permeability impairment. Other outstanding deviations were not found, except for single cases which were not statistically typical of the groups as a whole. However, the "degenerative type" of proteinogram emphasized in the literature predominated not only in the degenerative groups but also in certain other diseases with destruction of central nervous tissue which do not belong to the degenerative diseases in the strict sense. On the other hand, there are some degenerative subgroups without this "typical" electrophoretic pattern. There would thus appear to be grounds for amending the term "degenerative" into "tissue destroying" or "atrophic type", to avoid misinterpretation.