Determination of acetylcholine concentration in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with neurologic diseases.
BACKGROUND
Acetylcholine (ACh) is a well known neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, but determining its level in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is very difficult and the origin of CSF ACh is still unknown. In this study, we attempted to measure CSF ACh by a specific and sensitive radioimmunoassay (RIA) from patients with neurologic diseases.


METHODS
Patients with cerebral infarction (n = 7), Parkinson's disease (n = 6), spinocerebellar degeneration (n = 6), Alzheimer's disease (n = 3), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (n = 3) and disc herniation with no central nervous involvement (n = 8) participated to determine the CSF ACh levels.


RESULTS
Of these 33 patients, the mean ACh level in CSF was 282.2 +/- 61.7 fmol/ml (mean +/- SE, range 20-1505.8 fmol/ml). The mean ACh level of spinocerebellar degeneration group was lower than others, but not statistically significant.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that an amount of ACh detectable by RIA is certainly present in CSF.
Yamada
H
H
Department of Neurology, Jichi Medical School, Tochigi, Japan.
Otsuka
M
M
Fujimoto
K
K
Kawashima
K
K
Yoshida
M
M
D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000175:diagnosis; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000175:diagnosis; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007405:Intervertebral Disc Displacement / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000175:diagnosis; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000175:diagnosis; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012016:Reference Values; D013132:Spinocerebellar Degenerations / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000175:diagnosis
D000109:Acetylcholine