[Acute infections central nervous system. The significance of antiviral antibodies in the cerebrospinal fluid (author's transl)].

Examination of the CSF of 107 patients suffering from a viral infection of the central nervous system for the presence of antiviral antibodies indicated that 26 subjects (24 %) developed monospecific antibodies. The distribution of these antibodies differed according to whether the diagnosis was of meningitis or of encephalitis and myelitis since 3 patients out of 73 (4 %) with meningitis developed antibodies whilst the latter were detectable in 23 of the 34 subjects with encephalitis or myelitis (67 %). This difference was highly significant (p 0,001) and suggests that examination for antiviral antibodies in the CSF could be of use in the differential diagnosis between meningitis and encephalitis. Furthermore, the results presented suggest the existence of local production of antiviral antibodies in the CSF.