Neuropathology and applied neurobiology
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Neuropathol. Appl. Neurobiol. · Apr 2019
Serum neurofilament light chain levels as a marker of upper motor neuron degeneration in patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most common motor neuron degeneration disease with a diagnostic delay of about 1 year after symptoms onset. In ALS, blood neurofilament light chain (NfL) levels are elevated, but it is not entirely clear what drives this increase and what the diagnostic performance of serum NfL is in terms of predictive values and likelihood ratios. The aims of this study were to further explore the prognostic and diagnostic performances of serum NfL to discriminate between patients with ALS and ALS mimics, and to investigate the relationship between serum NfL with motor neuron degeneration. ⋯ Altogether, these findings suggest that elevated serum NfL levels in ALS are driven by UMN degeneration and the disease progression rate and are independently associated with survival at time of diagnosis.