Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of cerebrospinal fluid proteins in children with nontumoral hydrocephalus

Abstract

The changes occurring in the electrophoretic pattern of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteins in 37 children with nontumoral hydrocephalus, and the protein pattern of 12 children without organic neurological disease, were studied with polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In nontumoral hydrocephalus protein was frequently increased in lumbar and ventricular fluid, in this condition, in intraventricular obstruction, the proteins fractions showed a decrease in the prealbumin and an increase in the γ-globulin fractions, and in the extraventricular obstruction, the protein fractions showed a decrease in the prealbumin and an increase in the γ- globulin an α2-globulin fractions. With CSF proteins within normal ranges we found that in intraventricular obstruction, the proteins of the ventricular CSF showed an increase in the prealbumin and/or albumin fractions, and in extraventricular obstruction, the proteins of the ventricular CSF showed an increase in the prealbumin and β-globulin fraction