Epilepsy & behavior : E&B
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Dec 2019
Serum neurofilament light chain as a prognostic marker in postanoxic encephalopathy.
Functional outcome in patients with postanoxic encephalopathy after cardiac arrest (CA) often remains unclear, and there is a strong need of new prognostication measures. We aimed at investigating serum neurofilament light (NfL) chain concentration in patients with a postanoxic encephalopathy after CA and its prognostic potential. Serum samples were prospectively collected at different time points after CA in consecutive patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Ticino Cardiocentre (Lugano, Switzerland) between June 2017 and March 2018. ⋯ High NfL levels performed better than NSE in predicting death status at one month (NfL area under the curve (AUC) = 0.98, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.94-1.00; NSE AUC = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.67-0.94). These results support the potential inclusion of serum NfL in the battery of prognostication measures to be used in patients with postanoxic encephalopathy in ICU settings. This article is part of the Special Issue "Proceedings of the 7th London-Innsbruck Colloquium on Status Epilepticus and Acute Seizures".