[Bilirubin and the blood-brain barrier]

The report contains some results of a parallel determination of bilirubin in the blood serum and CSF in 321 patients with different diseases. The bilirubin in the blood serum was studied according to Jendrassik and Cleghorn (1936), in the CSF according to Jendrassik and the spectrophotometrically according to Fleming's and Woolf's (1965) formula. It was demonstrated that bilirubin appears in the CSF only in jaundice of different etiology, cerebral hemorrhages and in blocking the liquor paths. In the absence of such syndromes the haematoencephalic barrier is impassable for bilirubin.