The value of oligoclonal bands in neurobrucellosis.

We performed polyacrylamide gel isolectric focusing on diluted sera and non-concentrated CSF from ten patients with neurobrucellosis, ten patients with definite multiple sclerosis, seven patients with neuro-Behcet's syndrome, five patients with tuberculous meningitis, and eight patients with other neurological disorders. Our data support the proposed theory of the intrathecal synthesis of immunoglobulins in the presence of neurobrucellosis, and showed that evidence of oligoclonal IgG bands in cerebrospinal fluid and serum provides rapid and helpful confirmation of diagnosis of neurobrucellosis.