• Giulio Disanto, Rocco Adiutori, Ruth Dobson, Vittorio Martinelli, Gloria Dalla Costa, Tessel Runia, Evgeniy Evdoshenko, Eric Thouvenot, Maria Trojano, Niklas Norgren, Charlotte Teunissen, Ludwig Kappos, Ga... more vin Giovannoni, Jens Kuhle, and International Clinically Isolated Syndrome Study Group. less
• Queen Mary University of London, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK Neurocentre of Southern Switzerland, Ospedale Civico, Lugano, Switzerland.
• J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. 2016 Feb 1; 87 (2): 126-9.

BackgroundNeurofilament light chain (NfL) represents a promising biomarker for axonal injury. We present the first exploratory study on serum NfL in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and healthy controls.MethodsWe investigated serum NfL levels in 100 patients with CIS with a short conversion interval to clinically definite multiple sclerosis (MS) (fast converters (FC), median (IQR) conversion time: 110 days (79-139)); 98 patients with non-converting CIS (non-converters (NC), follow-up: 6.5 years (5.3-7.9)); and 92 healthy controls.ResultsNfL levels were higher in FC (24.1 pg/mL (13.5-51.8)) and NC (19.3 pg/mL (13.6-35.2)) than in healthy controls (7.9 pg/mL (5.6-17.2)) (OR=5.85; 95% CI 2.63 to 13.02; p = 1.5 × 10(-5) and OR = 7.03; 95% CI 2.85 to 17.34; p = 2.3 × 10(-5), respectively). When grouping FC and NC, increased serum NfL concentration was also associated with increasing numbers of T2 hyperintense MRI lesions (OR = 2.36; 95% CI 1.21 to 4.59; p = 0.011), gadolinium-enhancing lesions (OR = 2.69; 95% CI 1.13 to 6.41; p=0.026) and higher disability scores (OR = 2.54; 95% CI 1.21 to 5.31; p = 0.013) at CIS diagnosis.ConclusionsIf replicated in future studies, serum NfL may represent a reliable and easily accessible biomarker of early axonal damage in CIS and MS.Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

17 keywords...

hide…