Aim: The neurological disorder known as normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), which has an unknown cause, may be treatable, and is defined by a clinical triad of symptoms. A phenomenon known as dementia refers to a decline in cognitive performance that goes beyond what may be anticipated from the typical effects of biological aging. The symptomatic similarity between these two diseases causes problems in diagnosis. The objective of our study was to compare the concentrations of IL-17A, IL-17F, IL-34, and CXCL13 in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with NPH and dementia for an informative laboratory diagnosis.

Methods: The study included NPH and dementia cases (n=7, n=5, respectively) taken from the patients’s CSF sample by lumbar puncture (LP). The levels of IL-17A, IL-17F, IL-34, and CXCL13 were measured in the CSF of patients' with NPH and dementia by enzyme-linked assay (ELISA) and compared between the two different groups.

Results: There was no difference in age between the NPH and dementia groups (p=0.5). There was no statistically significant difference was found in IL-17A (p=0.7), IL-34 (p=0.9), and CXCL13 (p=0.2) in the inflammatory marker analysis in the CSF. The groups had a statistically significant difference in IL-17F (p=0.04).

Conclusion: IL-17F can be an important laboratory marker used in the differential diagnosis of NPH and dementia.

Keywords: NPH, Dementia, IL-17A, IL-17F, IL-34, CXCL13