Cerebrospinal fluid opening pressure is elevated with central nervous system infection and vasculitis, but has not been studied in inflammatory demyelinating disease. This retrospective study sought to determine whether children with demyelinating disease demonstrate elevated cerebrospinal fluid opening pressure, and to explore possible clinical and radiologic correlates.

Pediatric patients with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, multiple sclerosis, or a clinically isolated syndrome (including optic neuritis and transverse myelitis) who had a lumbar puncture within 1 month of presentation were eligible for inclusion, and were compared with a reference cohort of healthy children from the same institution. Regression analyses were used to determine the association of variables collected with opening pressure.

Opening pressure was elevated in 15 of 53 (28%) children, which was significantly higher than the reference cohort (P = 0.001). There was no relationship between elevated opening pressure and any of the clinical or radiologic variables collected.

Although almost one third of children with inflammatory demyelinating disease have an elevated cerebrospinal fluid opening pressure, the clinical and radiologic variables evaluated in this study did not explain this finding, and further understanding may require assessment of cerebrospinal fluid flow dynamics.