[Relationship between immunoglobulin levels in cerebrospinal fluid and serum]

By means of radial immunodiffusion, immunoglobulins A, G, M and albumin were determined in serum and unconcentrated cerebrospinal fluid from 182 controls and 141 patients. Concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid and serum of patients did not correlate, not even in those groups whose elevated immunoglobulin and albumin concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid resulted from damage to the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier, as in inflammatory diseases and neoplastic processes of the central nervous system or of the meninges.--Concentrations of immunoglobulins in cerebrospinal fluid should therefore be evaluated independently of the serum concentrations. Cerebrospinal fluid and serum constitute samples from two separate compartments which are capable of independent immune reactions.