Concentrations of purine nucleotides and purine and pyrimidine bases in cerebrospinal fluid of neurologically healthy children.

The concentrations of the nucleotides AMP and IMP, the nucleosides adenosine, guanosine and inosine, the purine bases adenine, guanine, hypoxanthine and xanthine, urate, and the pyrimidine bases cytosine, thymine and uracil were determined by high performance liquid chromatography in the cerebrospinal fluid of 63 children aged between 1 month and 13 years who showed no sign of neurological disease. The results are compared with those of other authors, and used to establish reference ranges for the above metabolites in the cerebrospinal fluid of children.