Cerebrospinal Fluid Lipids in Diabetes Mellitus

Abnormalities in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) lipids have been found in certain diseases and have correlated with direct biochemical measurements of lipids in nervous system tissue. In the present study, total and free cholesterol, total lipid, and total phospholipid were determined by micro-analytic technics in the serum and CSF of thirty subjects: eight normal controls, seven diabetic subjects with polyneuropathy, eight diabetic subjects without neuropathy, and seven patients with other neurological diseases. An elevation of free cholesterol (p < 0.02) was found in the CSF of all diabetics regardless of neurological involvement and independent of any simultaneous abnormality of serum. Phospholipid was probably elevated. The abnormality of CSF free cholesterol could be related to neurological dysfunction in the diabetic patient and to ganglion cell abnormality.