Spectrum of total fatty acids in cerebrospinal fluid determined by gas chromatography.

A simple gas-liquid chromatographic method for the determination of the spectrum of fatty acids in a small volume of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is presented. In a group of 49 neurological patients it has been found that in the CSF of the controls (n = 12) there are the following main fatty acids: oleic (27.28%), palmitic (23.23%), stearic (12.21%), linoleic (7.66%), myristic (5.02%), and palmitoleic (4.51%). Altogether 28 fatty acid methyl esters (FAME'S) from 12:0 to 22:2 have been tentatively identified. The majority of them appeared irregularly, sometimes in less than in 10% of cases. The composition of FAME'S in the CSF of patients with lumbar discopathy and with acute ischaemic cerebrovascular accidents does not differ from the control group. A significant difference (P less than 0.01) has been found in the group of hypophyseal adenomas in which the amounts of practically all saturated FAME'S with an odd carbon number are elevated. The same applies to the 18:0 and 20:0 compounds. In the group of atrophic and degenerative CNS processes the palmitic and stearic acids predominated to the detriment of oleic and linoleic acids.