Letter to the Editor

Response to “Cerebrospinal Fluid Viscosity: Can It Be Used as a Novel Diagnostic Measure for Acute Meningitis?”

Authors: Funda Yetkin, MD, Yasar Bayindir, MD

Abstract

To the Editor:


We would like to thank Drs. Hong-Liang Zhang and Jiang Wu for their valuable comments on our paper, “Cerebrospinal Fluid Viscosity: A Novel Diagnostic Measure for Acute Meningitis” (South Med J 2010 Sep; 103(9): 892–5).1 Briefly, they have commented on the result of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) viscosity and CSF protein levels and their correlation, pointing out that all of the positive findings in our paper are due to the elevated levels of CSF proteins rather than CSF viscosity per se. They also mentioned that other neurological diseases such as Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS)2 and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP)3 may also present with increased CSF viscosity due to increased CSF protein levels.

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References

1. Yetkin F, Kayabas U, Ersoy Y, et al. Cerebrospinal fluid viscosity: a novel diagnostic measure for acute meningitis. South Med J 2010;103:892–895.
 
2. Hughes RA, Cornblath DR. Guillain-Barré syndrome. Lancet 2005;366:1653–1666.
 
3. Vallat JM, Sommer C, Magy L. Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy: diagnostic and therapeutic challenges for a treatable condition. Lancet Neurol 2010;9:402–412.
 
4. Rosenson RS. Viscosity and ischemic heart disease. J Vasc Med Biol 1993;4:206–212.
 
5. Jin T, Hu LS, Chang M, et al. Proteomic identification of potential protein markers in cerebrospinal fluid of GBS patients. Eur J Neurol 2007;14:563–568.