Analysis of oligoclonal bands detection results of 3 217 patients with neurological disorders

ABSTRACT

Objective:

To study positive rates and typing of oligoclonal bands (OCB) in patients with neurological disorders, and to reveal the clinical significance and applicational value of OCB test.

A retrospective analysis was performed on the detection results of 3 217 patients with neurological disorders who undertook both serum and cerebrospinal fluid OCBs in the First Hospital of Peking University from January 2012 to August 2022. According to the final diagnosis, the patients were divided into 13 groups including multiple sclerosis (479 cases), neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (935 cases), autoimmune encephalitis (192 cases), viral encephalitis (94 cases), nervous system complication after HSCT (232 cases), Guillain-Barré syndrome (644 cases), chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (157 cases), etc. Cerebrospinal fluid and serum OCBs were detected using isoelectric focusing electrophoresis combining immunofixation, then classified into Ⅰ-Ⅴ types according to the morphology. Consequently, positive rates and types were analyzed for each group. χ2 test was used for comparison between groups.

The positive rates of cerebrospinal fluid OCB in multiple sclerosis, nervous system complication after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), autoimmune encephalitis, viral encephalitis, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders, Guillain-Barré syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy were respectively 66.8% (320/479), 48.7% (113/232), 46.4%(89/192), 19.1% (18/94), 17.6% (165/935), 9.9% (64/644), 5.1% (8/157). For patients with multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders, viral encephalitis, and autoimmune encephalitis, Type Ⅱ bands took the majority of cerebrospinal fluid OCB-positive cases with the rates of 94.1% (301/320), 78.7% (70/89), 77.8% (14/18), and 77.6% (128/165) respectively, indicating intrathecal IgG synthesis; for patients with nervous system complication after HSCT, Guillain-Barré syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, type Ⅳ bands took the majority of cerebrospinal fluid OCB-positive cases with the rates of 94.7% (107/113), 82.8% (53/64) and 100% (8/8), indicating no obvious intrathecal IgG synthesis. The positive rates of cerebrospinal fluid oligoclonal bands were significantly different among all groups (χ 2=1 268.31, P<0.001).

The positive rates of cerebrospinal fluid oligoclonal bands are different among different neurological disorders, in which the positive rate of cerebrospinal fluid OCB is higher with type Ⅱ bands as the majority type in multiple sclerosis, which indicates that the detection and typing of cerebrospinal fluid OCB are helpful for the diagnosis of various neurological diseases, especially for multiple sclerosis.