Effects of blood contamination on cerebrospinal fluid analysis.

The research article investigates the impact of blood contamination on the analysis of cerebrospinal fluid in various animal species including dogs, cats, cows, and horses, and finds that, despite heavy contamination, it has little effect on the enumeration of white blood cells and that common correction formulas are not reliable.

Methodology and Key Findings

• The study used 190 samples of cerebrospinal fluid collected from a diverse set of animals including dogs, cats, cows, and horses. These animals were both clinically normal and diseased.
• Out of these 190 samples, 115 were found to have contamination by red blood cells, which are indicative of blood contamination. However, white blood cells were rarely found in normal animals.
• The researchers observed that the presence of blood contamination, even in large amounts, had negligible influence on the count of white blood cells. This is counterintuitive as one might expect contamination to alter the count.
• An accepted method of correcting for blood contamination was tested on the samples to determine its reliability. This formula is used to determine “uncontaminated” values for several factors including white blood cells, total protein, and creatine phosphokinase.
• Contrary to the widely accepted belief, the study found this correction formula to be unreliable. Hence, its results might lead to inaccurate estimations for the aforementioned factors.

Implications and Conclusions

• The findings of this research can have significant implications in clinical settings where testing cerebrospinal fluids is common. Practitioners should be aware that blood contamination may not affect white blood cell counts as much as previously believed.
• Moreover, the unreliability of the commonly used correction formula suggests that practitioners need to be cautious while interpreting results, especially when there’s blood contamination. It emphasizes the need for further research to develop more reliable methods for accounting for blood contamination in cerebrospinal fluid analysis.