Table 2.
Cerebrospinal fluid findings in patients with a first clinical attack according to the occurrence of a second relapse during follow-up.
| No relapse | Relapse | P value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | 29 | 74 | |||
| Cells and Cytology | |||||
| RBC (/μl)1 | 29 | 0 (0-185) | 74 | 0 (0-265) | 0.8063 |
| WBC (/μl)1 | 29 | 4 (1-27) | 74 | 7 (2-25) | 0.009 3 |
| WBC ≥5/μl2 | 29 | 12 (41) | 74 | 50 (68) | 0.015 4 |
| Lymphocytes/plasma cells2,7 | 21 | 21 (100) | 64 | 63 (98) | 0.5644 |
| Monocytes/macrophages2,7 | 21 | 2 (10) | 64 | 26 (41) | 0.009 4 |
| Neutrophils2,7 | 21 | 1 (5) | 64 | 4 (6) | 0.8014 |
| Eosinophils2,7 | 21 | 0 (0) | 64 | 0 (0) | NA |
| Basophils2,7 | 21 | 0 (0) | 64 | 0 (0) | NA |
| No cells2 | 29 | 8 (28) | 74 | 10 (14) | 0.0554 |
| Shadow cells2 | 29 | 13 (45) | 74 | 40 (54) | 0.3994 |
| Protein diagnostics | |||||
| CSF TP (mg/l)1 | 29 | 350 (190-600) | 74 | 360 (240-630) | 0.4483 |
| CSF TP ≥ aURL2,5 | 29 | 4 (14) | 74 | 13 (18) | 0.6434 |
| CSF TP ≥ cURL2,5 | 29 | 7 (24) | 74 | 23 (31) | 0.4854 |
| Qalb 1 | 28 | 4.4 (2.3-9.1) | 73 | 4.6 (2.4-8.8) | 0.6823 |
| Qalb ≥ aURL2,6 | 28 | 1 (4) | 73 | 2 (3) | 0.8264 |
| Qalb ≥ cURL2,6 | 28 | 5 (18) | 73 | 12 (16) | 0.8654 |
| Intrathecal IgG synthesis | |||||
| IFReiber >02 | 28 | 15 (54) | 73 | 49 (67) | 0.2064 |
| IFReiber (%)1 | 28 | 1 (0-67) | 73 | 20 (0-68) | 0.1093 |
| IFAuer&Hegen >02 | 28 | 13 (46) | 73 | 47 (64) | 0.1004 |
| IFAuer&Hegen (%)1 | 28 | 0 (0-62) | 73 | 15 (0-65) | 0.1013 |
| IgG index1 | 28 | 0.72 (0.44-1.88) | 73 | 0.86 (0.5-2.05) | 0.1043 |
| IgG index >0.72 | 28 | 15 (54) | 73 | 49 (67) | 0.2064 |
| OCB positive2 | 29 | 24 (83) | 74 | 69 (93) | 0.1064 |
| Intrathecal IgA synthesis | |||||
| IFReiber >02 | 28 | 8 (29) | 72 | 15 (21) | 0.4094 |
| IFReiber (%)1 | 28 | 0 (0-44) | 72 | 0 (0-52) | 0.8363 |
| IFAuer&Hegen >02 | 28 | 4 (14) | 72 | 9 (13) | 0.8124 |
| IFAuer&Hegen (%)1 | 28 | 0 (0-33) | 72 | 0 (0-42) | 0.8123 |
| Intrathecal IgM synthesis | |||||
| IFReiber >02 | 28 | 9 (32) | 73 | 20 (27) | 0.6374 |
| IFReiber (%)1 | 28 | 0 (0-71) | 73 | 0 (0-57) | 0.3913 |
| IFAuer&Hegen >02 | 28 | 7 (25) | 73 | 12 (16) | 0.3244 |
| IFAuer&Hegen (%)1 | 28 | 0 (0-56) | 73 | 0 (0-38) | 0.3953 |
Data are shown as 1median (5th-95th percentile) or 2n (%). Group comparisons were performed by 3Mann-Whitney U test or 4Pearson Chi-Quadrat test. 5For CSF TP, the cURL was <45 mg/l, the aURL was calculated according to the formula of McCudden et al. (Clin Chem 2017;63(12): 1856-1865). 6For Qalb, the cURL was calculated as “age/15+4” (Reiber et al. J Neurol Sci 2001;184:101–22), the aURL was determined as “age/25+8” (Hegen et al. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2016;54(2):285-92). 7Percentage of CSF samples with evidence of the respective leukocyte subtypes (lymphocytes/plasma cells, monocytes/macrophages, neutrophils, eosinophils and basophils) refers to CSF samples with any cells detectable by microscopy in the cytology (i.e. on the glass slide; n=85). P-values <0.05 are marked bold. Note that these are uncorrected P-values just for descriptive analysis.
aURL, age-dependent upper reference limit; cURL, conventional upper reference limit; CSF, cerebrospinal fluid; IF, intrathecal fraction; Ig, immunoglobulin; NA, not appropriate; OCB, oligoclonal bands; Qalb, CSF/serum albumin quotient, RBC, red blood cell, TP, total protein; WBC, white blood cell.