Cerebrospinal fluid levels of quinolinic acid in Huntington's disease and schizophrenia

Abstract
The concentration of the endogenous excitotoxin quinolinic acid was determined in the cerebrospinal fluid of drug‐free patients suffering from Huntington's disease or schizophrenia (control group). In both diseases, quinolinic acid concentrations were highly variable (< 4–48 nM) but the mean levels for each disease group were not significantly different from each other or from the quinolinic acid concentration of normal cerebrospinal fluid. Analysis of steady‐state cerebrospinal fluid quinolinic acid concentration is unlikely to be of value as a diagnostic tool in Huntington's disease.