Evaluation of the erythrocyte-UFA (E-UFA) mobility test for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis

The absolute electrophoretic mobility of red blood cells was examined before and after the addition of linoleic acid. The determinations were performed with a Zeiss cytopherometer. The blood was taken from 22 patients with multiple sclerosis in different phases of their disease. A group of 17 patients with other neurological diseases and three apparently healthy subjects served as controls. Our results show that the mobility of red blood cells was either accelerated or inhibited in the presence of linoleic acid, both in the multiple sclerosis patients as well as in the control group. The increase or inhibition of the absolute mobility was small and randomly distributed. The value of this so-called E-UFA test (erythrocyte-unsaturated fatty acid) as a specific diagnostic test for multiple sclerosis is not confirmed by our results.