Increased nucleotide catabolism after cerebral convulsions

Cardiazol induced seizures in rabbits showed that the highest oxypurine concentrations can be detected in the CSF 1 hour after the convulsions. There is a sharp decline continuing until the third hour. After that the CSF values remain nearly constant until the 24th hour being about ten times higher than in the controls. There is a good correlation of these results obtained through the densitometric thin-layer, enzymatic-oxymetric, and HPLC-methods. Creatinine and potassium were raised only during the first two hours postconvulsively. Uracil appeared in the CSF slightly higher at the 1 hour and at the 12 and 24 hour values. A parallel increase of the oxypurine and creatinine concentrations was found in the serum between 30 to 120 minutes postconvulsively. After that the raised serum values decreased slowly to the initial values. CSF samples were examined in 31 children postconvulsively: Hypoxanthine was found to be raised in 8 of 12 patients with severe grand mal seizures, 1 of 6 patients with hypsarrhythmia, 1 of 8 patients with short seizures (less than 2 min) and in all 5 patients with petit mal status. In contrast to these groups the hypoxanthine concentrations was raised only in 2 of 20 children with aseptic meningitis. The difference between the group of children with convulsions and the group of children with aseptic meningitis is significant (p less than 0.005). Also, the frequency of raised uric acid concentration is higher in the group of children with convulsions (70%) than in the group of children with aseptic meningitis (40%); (p less than 0.05).