[Cerebrospinal fluid protein electrophoresis in non-inflammatory central nervous system diseases]

Cerebrospinal fluids (CSF) (N = 365) from patients with non-inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system were analyzed for protein distribution by agar gel microelectrophoresis. After subdivision into diagnostically well defined groups, these patients were compared with 79 normal controls. Most of the diseases investigated were found to follow the "plasma-type" pattern. In some of them the deviations from normal were so extensive that a CSF-protein pattern similar to the "acute-phase reaction" in the serum occurred. Moreover, the following characteristics were found: a considerable increase in total protein and the gamma-globulin fractions in neurinomas; a reproducible increase in the alpha1-globulins in metastases of the central nervous system; and a statistically significant difference of CSF protein findings between male and female patients with protrusion of lumbar intervertebral discs.