Manual and automated determination of immunoglobulins in unconcentrated cerebrospinal fluid.

Manual procedures have been developed for determination in human cerebrospinal fluid of the immunoglobulins lgG, IgA, and 1gM. An automated continuous-flow procedure for determination of lgG in human CSF is also described. The immunoglobulins are quantitated in both cases by immunoprecipitin reactions, with use of commercial antiserum. Values determined for the immunoglobulins by the manual method correlate with values for gamma globulin obtained by electrophoresis. The values for lgG from the manual method also correlate with lgG values determined by the automated procedure. The precision of duplicate determinations with the manual procedures for IgG, IgA, and 1gM is 3.4, 1.8, and 1.0% (relative standard deviation), respectively, and that for lgG with the automated system is 3.48%.