[Cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of creatinine and purine metabolites determined by high performance liquid chromatography: preliminary report on head injury and stroke patients].

A prospective high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) study was performed in eighteen patients with head injury and stroke and four control volunteers to evaluate creatinine and purine metabolites concentration (adenosine, inosine, hypoxanthine, uric acid) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The present HPLC method is rapid, accurate and sensitive in the same isocratic run and no specimen pretreatment of 0.02 ml CSF is necessary. The creatinine level in CSF was increased from 122 to 169 mumol/l in some patients, and was found unrelated to that of serum. The uric acid levels varied between 5.8 and 121 mumol/l and were associated with decrease in Glasgow Coma Scale score and had a critical point of 30 mumol/l. We present initial results in application of HPLC method to measure the creatinine and purine metabolites in CSF. This preliminary report presents that these high levels in CSF of head injury and stroke patients probably reflect tissue damage and an increased tissue catabolism.