oligoclonal bands can be fouund if you look hard enough

Halbgebauer S, Huss A, Buttmann M, Steinacker P, Oeckl P, Brecht I, Weishaupt A, Tumani H, Otto M.Detection of intrathecal immunoglobulin G synthesis by capillary isoelectric focusing immunoassay in oligoclonal band negative multiple sclerosis.
J Neurol. 2016 Mar 19. [Epub ahead of print]


Oligoclonal immunoglobulin G bands (OCBs) restricted to the cerebrospinal fluid indicate intrathecal inflammation. Using isoelectric focusing and immunoblotting, they are detected in about 95 % of patients with clinically definite multiple sclerosis (MS). To elucidate whether in the remaining 5 % OCBs are truly absent or alternatively missed due to insufficient sensitivity of the routine measurement, we employed a new, highly sensitive nanoscale method for OCB detection. Capillary isoelectric focusing followed by immunological detection served to analyze OCBs in 33 well-characterized OCB-negative and 10 OCB-positive MS patients as well as in 100 OCB-negative control patients with non-inflammatory neurological diseases and 30 OCB-positive control patients with inflammatory neurological diseases. We detected intrathecal immunoglobulin G production in 10 out of 33 MS patients (30 %), initially diagnosed as being OCB-negative, and in all 10 OCB-positive MS patients, but in only 3 out of 100 non-inflammatory neurological controls (3 %) and in 29 of 30 inflammatory neurological controls (97 %). At least about one-third of MS patients without intrathecal immunoglobulin G synthesis according to standard methods are OCB-positive. Advanced methods for OCB detection may increase the analytical sensitivity for detecting OCB in patients with MS who are OCB-negative according to current routine methods.
 
This study looks at oligoclonal bandsand negative people and says that if you look hard enough they can be found 

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