Cerebrospinal fluid choline in extrapyramidal disorders

Regional distribution of choline acetyltransferase in the human brain: changes in Huntington's chorea.

“…Anticholinergic agents aggravate chorea, while reduced hyperkinesia has been reported after physostigmine (Aquilonius and Sjostrom, 1971; Klawans and Rubowits, 1972). The low concentrations of cerebrospinal fluid choline (Ch) often found in patients with Huntington's chorea (Aquilonius et al, 1972) also emphasize the need for extended studies on central cholinergic mechanisms in this disease.…”

The Neurochemical Basis of Acetylcholine Precursor Loading as a Therapeutic Strategy

“…If it is Significant for the population as a whole, the difference is small and unlikely to be of value for purposes of diagnosis or assessment. No significant differences were found between controls and patients with Parkinson's disease (Aquilonius et al, 1972;Welsh et al, 1976) nor did drug treatment yield a significant effect (Aquilonius et al, 1972;Consolo et al, 1977). Interpretation of lumbar CSF Ch concentration is further complicated by the fact that it increases as the volume withdrawn increases (Welsh et al, 1976).…”

“…Survival of ACh in CSF for long enough to reach the lumbar region seems less improbable** since it disappears only slowly on standing at room temperature (Duvoisin and Dettbarn, 1967) and is not significantly more stable when the sample is treated with an anticholinesterase (Welsh et al, 1976). Although the early literature suggests that trauma (Tower and McEachern, 1949a) and epilepsy (Tower and McEachern, 1949b) may be associated with elevated CSF ACh levels, recent data provide little basis for optimism for the clinical utility of this difficult measurement (Aquilonius et al, 1972;Welsh et al, 1976;Consolo et al, 1977), although more data are clearly needed (Davis et al, 1977b).…”

“…Interpretation of lumbar CSF Ch concentration is further complicated by the fact that it increases as the volume withdrawn increases (Welsh et al, 1976). This was interpreted to reflect a gradient from the ventricles because of efficient removal ofCh during the ventriculocysternal passage (Aquilonius and Winbladh, 1971) since the ventricular concentration is considerably higher (Aquilonius et al, 1972). As in the case of plasma, measurement of esterified forms of Ch in CSF may be more informative.…”

Cerebrospinal fluid choline levels are decreased in Parkinson's disease

“…The values in CSF choline levels adjusted for age showed a significant difference between the control subjects and the Parkinson's disease patients. Aquilonius and colleagues [9], Welch and colleagues 1127, and Flentge and colleagues [lo} measured choline levels in CSF of Parkinson's disease patients using radioenzymatic or gas chromatographidmass spectrometric methods. These authors did not find significant changes in CSF choline levels.…”