Difficulties in the differentiation of chronic inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system--value of cerebrospinal fluid analysis and immunological abnormalities in the diagnosis.

OBJECTIVES: A number of neurological syndromes may be evoked by involvement of the nervous system due to systemic diseases such as lupus erythematodes, sarcoidosis, Behçet's disease and Sjögren's syndrome (SS) and may be confounded with another chronic inflammatory disease which is restricted to the central nervous system, e.g. multiple sclerosis (MS). Because of different treatment strategies, it is important to distinguish between these different autoimmune diseases.
RESULTS: Neither clinical signs nor additional analyses such as serological findings or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis are able to differentiate between the diseases with certainty. Nevertheless, taking all findings together, diagnosis may be possible.
CONCLUSION: Here we compare typical clinical and CSF findings in MS, neurosarcoidosis, neurolupus, neuro-Behçet and nervous system involving SS with special emphasis on those findings allowing differentiation of the respective diseases by reviewing the literature.