Annals of clinical biochemistry
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Ann. Clin. Biochem. · Mar 2008
What is the role of cerebrospinal fluid ferritin in the diagnosis of subarachnoid haemorrhage in computed tomography-negative patients?
Spectrophotometry of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for bilirubin is the recommended method for investigation in suspected cases of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH), when a computed tomography (CT) of the head is negative for blood. There is a potential need for a simpler alternative. Measurement of CSF ferritin might fulfil this need. ⋯ At an appropriate negative predictive value (1.0) for a rule-out test, ferritin has too low a specificity to function as a stand-alone test and we cannot recommend it as an initial screen to be followed by spectrophotometry.