COMPOSITE CEREBROSPINAL-FLUID SCORE IN RELAPSING-REMITTING AND SECONDARY PROGRESSIVE MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS

We investigated whether cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis may differe ntiate between relapsing-remitting (RR) and secondary progressive (SP) multiple sclerosis (MS). In 17 RR and 16 SP patients we determined: a lbumine CSF/PB ratio; mononuclear cell(MNC) number, CD4+, CD8+ and BI subsets, CD4+/CD8+ ratio; IgG, IgG index, IgM, IgM index, complement components C3 and C4, and C3 and C4 indexes; myelin basic protein, neu ron-specific enolase (NSE); S100; and lactate. For each parameter the statistical distance was calculated Then, using linear discriminant an alysis we computed a discriminant score, including only variables with a P value less than or equal to 0.15: albumin CSF/PB ratio, MNC numbe r, IgM, IgM index, C3, C4, NSE S100, and lactate. The discriminant sco re allocated all 17 RR patients to the RR group and 15 of 16 SP Patien ts to the SP group. We conclude that RR and SP MS patients differ with respect to CSF profile and that in individual patients a composite CS F score may differentiate between RR and SP MS.