Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with dementia

Abstract

The concentration of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is under normal conditions much higher than in serum. Altered concentration in CSF may Simply changes in release from the CNS, in distribution volume or in degradation.

The concentration of VIP in CSF was significantly lower in patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus (11 $ 3 pmol/l) and in multiinfarct dementia (17 $ 4 pmol/l), than in age -matched controls (35 $ 4 pmol/l). VIP concentration in patients with senile dementia, Parkinson's syndrome and Huntington's chorea and in men with psychoorganic syndrome, who had been exposed to organic solvents, did not differ from control. Three months after a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt was inserted in patients with hydrocephalus, the CSF concentration of VIP was significantly higher than before the operation (54 $ 13 pmol/l). The potential clinical value of VIP in CSF as a screening test in patients with suspected normotensive hypercephalus should be further evaluated. VIP, CSF, dementia, normal pressure hydrocephalus, cerebral infarction.