Une bien curieuse électrophorèse

Preanalytical steps may be the source of many errors. In this paper, we report the case of an exploration of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteins in which the pre-analytical step was defective. Discordance in the results of the CSF protein level measurement, associated with an aberrant electrophoresis led us to suspect a preanalytical interference. After investigating the preanalytical treatment of the sample, we suspected a possible interference by previous formaldehyde treatment, which was confirmed by several tests performed in our laboratory. These data point out the importance of preanalytical steps for the quality of results.