COMPARISON OF METHODS FOR DETECTING KAPPA FREE LIGHT CHAINS AND OLIGOCLONAL BANDS IN CEREBROSPINAL FLUID FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Аннотация

The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of detecting kappa free light chains (KFLC) in cerebrospinal fluid for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, in comparison with isoelectric focusing (IEF) for detecting oligoclonal bands (OCB) as the reference standard. A total of 64 cases were divided into OCB-positive and OCB-negative groups based on OCB results. Diagnostic accuracy was calculated at a threshold of 1 mg/L. The 1 mg/L threshold yielded an agreement rate of 86.1% and a Cohen’s kappa value of 0.8. The Youden index determined 0.92 mg/L as the optimal cutoff value (specificity 90.3% and sensitivity 90.9%). The analytical time was 3 hours 55 minutes for IEF and 25 minutes for KFLC. The KFLC method proved to be an accurate, cost-effective, and rapid alternative that can be applied prior to modern OCB testing.