Significance of neurofilament light in the diagnosis and prognosis of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders

Abstract

Objective To discover the significance of neurofilament light (NFL) chain of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), an axonal injury biomarker, in diagnosis and prognosis prediction of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders(NMOSD). Methods Sixty-one NMOSD patients and 24 other patients such as neurosis, migraine and so on, with lumbar puncture were enrolled as NMOSD group and normal control (NC) group from in and out patients of Department of Neurology of Navy General Hospital from January 2014 to August 2016. The clinical and neuroimaging features of NMOSD group and CSF samples of both groups were collected, and the NFL levels of CSF were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. The CSF NFL levels in different subtypes of NMOSD patients were compared, and the influence factors of the NFL levels in CSF were calculated by multiple linear regression analysis. Results The NFL levels of CSF in NMOSD group (2 729.00(14 862.00) pg/ml) were significantly higher than that in NC group ((299.50(308.00) pg/ml, t=8.588, P=0.000; t test of NFL levels was performed after logarithmicly transforming based on 10). There were no statistically significant differences of CSF NFL levels among optic neuritis, longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis and neuromyelitis optica. In NMOSD group, age (b=0.017, P<0.01), Expanded Disability Status Scale score (b=0.078, P<0.05) and enhancement in gadolinium-magnetic resonance imaging (b=0.478, P<0.01) were correlated with the NFL levels of CSF, while gender, courses of diseases and aquaporin 4 antibody in serum were not related to the NFL levels. Conclusion The NFL levels of CSF are conducive to assess the severity and probable progress of NMOSD. Key words: Neuromyelitis optica; Aquaporin 4; Neurofilament proteins; Diagnosis; Prognosis