Cerebrospinal fluid content of manganese, platinum, and strontium in patients with cerebral tumors, leukemia, and other noncerebral neoplasms.

Electrothermal atomic absorption spectrophotometry was employed to measure the concentrations of manganese, platinum, and strontium in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 47 patients with brain neoplasms (34 benign and 13 malignant), 17 leukemic patients, 10 patients with lymphoma or non-cerebral solid tumors, and 27 control patients. According to the data obtained, manganese appears to be significantly (p less than 0.015) depleted from the CSF of leukemic patients, whereas platinum is diminished in CSF of patients with brain tumors, leukemia, lymphoma, or noncerebral solid tumors; the ratios for the mean CSF concentration of platinum in these tumor patients/control patients ranged between 0.52 and 0.7. There was no significant difference in CSF concentrations of strontium among the groups examined.