2001 Volume 30 Issue 2 Pages 100-105
In spite of the usefulness of the examination of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the diagnosis of diseases of the central nervous system, the reference intervals of the chemical constituents of CSF cannot be readily determined because the invasiveness of sampling procedures makes it difficult to gather a sufficient number of samples from healthy subjects. Instead we carefully chose samples from patients whose diseases did not seem to affect the contents of CSF, and estimated the reference intervals of total protein, albumin, glucose, IgG, β2 microglobulin, sodium, potassium, chloride, AST, LD, calcium, inorganic phosphate, apolipoprotein E, and sialic acid using the parametric method. Among them, the contents of total protein, albumin, IgG, β2 microglobulin, and apolipoprotein E tended to vary with age. Therefore age-stratified reference intervals have been estimated for these substances.
