Cerebrospinal Fluid Selenium Concentrations in Pediatric Patients with Neurologic Disorders

Abstract We aimed to study the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) selenium (Se) status in pediatric patients with neurologic disorders and to assess the relationship between CSF Se concentrations, proteins, glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity, and patient clinical data. We analyzed CSF Se by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in 212 patients with several neurologic conditions. Student's t-test was applied to compare CSF Se values from patients with those of controls. Single and multiple correlation studies were applied to assess the association between the different variables. Nineteen patients presented with abnormal CSF Se concentrations when compared with our reference values established for the different groups of age (group 1: 1–30 days; 1.8–4.7 µg/L; group 2: 1–36 months; 0.68–3.0 µg/L; group 3: 4–18 years; 0.73–2.13 µg/L) associated with different clinical conditions. Ten had decreased CSF Se levels and nine had increased levels. A positive correlation between CSF Se and GPx activity (r = 0.586; p <0.001), as well as with total proteins (r = 0.387; p <0.001) and with albumin (r = 0.898; p <0.001), was observed. Impaired Se concentrations affected 9% of patients with neurologic dysfunction. The positive correlation observed between CSF Se and CSF albumin values suggests that this protein markedly contributes to total Se concentrations. Also, the positive correlation observed between CSF Se values and GPx activity suggests that it may be a biomarker for antioxidant status in the CSF.