• Lorenzo Gaetani, Nicola Salvadori, Viviana Lisetti, Paolo Eusebi, Andrea Mancini, Lucia Gentili, Angela Borrelli, Emilio Portaccio, Paola Sarchielli, Kaj Blennow, Henrik Zetterberg, Lucilla Parnetti, Paolo Calabresi, and Massimiliano Di Filippo.
• Section of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Santa Maria Della Misericordia Hospital, University of Perugia, 06132, Perugia, Italy. loregaeta@gmail.com.
• J. Neurol. 2019 Sep 1; 266 (9): 2157-2163.

BackgroundCognitive impairment (CI) is a disabling symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS). Axonal damage disrupts neural circuits and may play a role in determining CI, but its detection and monitoring are not routinely performed. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neurofilament light chain (NfL) is a promising marker of axonal damage in MS.ObjectiveTo retrospectively examine the relationship between CSF NfL and CI in MS patients.MethodsCSF NfL concentration was measured in 28 consecutive newly diagnosed MS patients who underwent a neuropsychological evaluation with the Brief Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological tests (BRBN).ResultsCSF NfL was higher in patients with overall CI (947.8 ± 400.7 vs 518.4 ± 424.7 pg/mL, p < 0.01), and with impairment in information processing speed (IPS) (820.8 ± 413.6 vs 513.6 ± 461.4 pg/mL, p < 0.05) and verbal fluency (1292 ± 511 vs 582.8 ± 395.4 pg/mL, p < 0.05), and it positively correlated with the number of impaired BRBN tests (r = 0.48, p = 0.01) and cognitive domains (r = 0.47, p = 0.01). Multivariate analyses taking into account potential confounders confirmed these findings.ConclusionCSF NfL is higher in MS patients with CI and impaired IPS and verbal fluency. Large myelinated axons injury, causing neural disconnection, may be an important determinant of CI in MS and can be reliably measured through CSF NfL.

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