PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Giulio Disanto
AU  - Rocco Adiutori
AU  - Ruth Dobson
AU  - Vittorio Martinelli
AU  - Gloria Dalla Costa
AU  - Tessel Runia
AU  - Evgeniy Evdoshenko
AU  - Eric Thouvenot
AU  - Maria Trojano
AU  - Niklas Norgren
AU  - Charlotte Teunissen
AU  - Ludwig Kappos
AU  - Gavin Giovannoni
AU  - Jens Kuhle
TI  - Serum neurofilament light chain levels are increased in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome
AID  - 10.1136/jnnp-2014-309690
DP  - 2016 Feb 01
TA  - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry
PG  - 126--129
VI  - 87
IP  - 2
4099  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/87/2/126.short
4100  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/87/2/126.full
SO  - J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry2016 Feb 01; 87
AB  - Background Neurofilament 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.Methods We 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.Results NfL 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.Conclusions If replicated in future studies, serum NfL may represent a reliable and easily accessible biomarker of early axonal damage in CIS and MS.