Cerebrospinal Fluid Proteins in Infectious Neurological Diseases and Guillain-Barré Syndrome

Abstract

Investigations of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteins are very important in many neurological diseases. The semiquantitative and quantitative determinations of CSF protein content and the empirical reactions, especially mastix and gold colloidal reactions, were the routine chemical analyses performed on CSF for many decades. A probable explanation of these early observations of pathological CSF protein abnormalities, and the current importance of high-resolution CSF protein examinations, seems to be that large protein molecules tend to accumulate in CSF. These protein alterations can be studied in CSF samples drawn from patients during lumbar puncture.87 This rationale is also applicable to substances that are in association with CSF proteins. Generally, electrophoretic and immunological methods have been used for studying CSF proteins. Both these techniques are suitable for clinical examinations and have yielded extremely valuable information regarding CSF proteins in health and disease.87