Alcohol consumption and blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier dysfunction in man.
The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)/serum albumin ratio has been used a marker for blood CSF barrier permeability in 116 normal patients. We attempted to correlate the CSF/serum albumin ratio with a number of clinically measurable parameters including alcohol consumption. Alcohol consumption had a significant effect on the blood-CSF barrier. Our data indicate that alcohol increases blood CSF barrier permeability in a dose-dependent manner. The measured values of parameters indirectly indicative of alcohol consumption, such as gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (gamma-GT) and erythrocyte mean corpuscular volume (MCV), were also correlated with enhanced blood-CSF barrier permeability. Although an apparent influence of age, body weight and sex on blood-CSF barrier permeability was observed, these correlations were not separable from the effect of alcohol consumption.
Kornhuber
J
J
Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, F.R.G.
Kaiserauer
C H
CH
Kornhuber
A W
AW
Kornhuber
M E
ME
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000502:physiology*; D001812:Blood-Brain Barrier / Q000187:drug effects*; D001835:Body Weight; D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000378:metabolism*
D012709:Serum Albumin