FREE AND TOTAL VITAMIN B12 IN CEREBROSPINAL FLUID

  • 1 January 1963
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 88  (17) , 876-+
Abstract
Free and total vitamin B12 levels in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were bioassayed, since there were no available data on the relationship between free and total vitamin B12 in CSF or between free vitamin in serum and CSF vitamin Bl2. The subjects were 43 neurological patients. Serum levels were normal in 40 of 43 patients. Values for free and total vitamin B12 in CSF were the same in 42 of 43 patients. Mean CSF vitamin B12 was 21 [mu][mu]g/ml. In 17 cases CSF vitamin B12 equalled free vitamin B12 level in serum, in 16 cases CSF vitamin B12 was lower than the free level in serum, and in 10 cases CSF vitamin B12 was higher than the free vitamin level in serum. There was not apparent diagnostic correlation. The findings suggest that vitamin B12 is not bound in CSF and that there is some selective control of passage of vitamin B12 across the blood CSF barrier.