Plasma neurofilament light admission levels and development of axonal pathology in mild traumatic brain injury
Description
Abstract Background It is known that blood levels of neurofilament light (NF-L) and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) are both associated with outcome of patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Here, we sought to examine the association between admission levels of plasma NF-L and white matter (WM) integrity in post-acute stage DW-MRI in patients with mTBI. Methods Ninety-three patients with mTBI (GCS ≥ 13), blood sample for NF-L within 24 h of admission, and DW-MRI ≥ 90 days post-injury (median = 229) were included. Mean fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD) were calculated from the skeletonized WM tracts of the whole brain. Outcome was assessed using the Extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOSE) at the time of imaging. Patients were divided into CT-positive and -negative, and complete (GOSE = 8) and incomplete recovery (GOSE < 8) groups. Results The levels of NF-L and FA correlated negatively in the whole cohort (p = 0.002), in CT-positive patients (p = 0.016), and in those with incomplete recovery (p = 0.005). The same groups showed a positive correlation with mean MD, AD, and RD (p < 0.001—p = 0.011). In CT-negative patients or in patients with full recovery, significant correlations were not found. Conclusion In patients with mTBI, the significant correlation between NF-L levels at admission and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measurements of diffuse axonal injury (DAI) over more than 3 months suggests that the early levels of plasma NF-L may associate with the presence of DAI at a later phase of TBI.
Show moreYear of publication
2023
Authors
Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering
David K. Menon - Creator
Henna-Riikka Maanpää - Creator
Henrik Zetterberg - Creator
Iftakher Hossain - Creator
Jussi Hirvonen - Creator
Jussi P. Posti - Creator
Jussi Tallus - Creator
Kaj Blennow - Creator
Mark van Gils - Creator
Mehrbod Mohammadian - Creator
Olli Tenovuo - Creator
Peter Hutchinson - Creator
Riikka S. K. Takala - Creator
Timo Kurki - Creator
Virginia F. Newcombe - Creator
Tampere University - Contributor
Turku University Hospital - Contributor
University of Cambridge - Contributor
University of Turku - Contributor
figshare - Publisher
Other information
Fields of science
Neurosciences
Open access
Open
License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)