You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Letter
Serum neurofilament light chain: a biomarker of neuronal injury in vasculitic neuropathy
  1. Antje Bischof1,2,
  2. Tobias Manigold3,
  3. Christian Barro2,
  4. Ingmar Heijnen4,
  5. Christoph T Berger5,
  6. Tobias Derfuss2,
  7. Jens Kuhle2,
  8. Thomas Daikeler6
  1. 1 Immunology Clinic, Departments of Medicine, Clinical Research and Biomedicine, University Hospital and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  2. 2 Neurologic Clinic and Policlinic, Departments of Medicine, Clinical Research and Biomedicine, University Hospital and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  3. 3 Department of Rheumatology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  4. 4 Division of Medical Immunology, Laboratory Medicine, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  5. 5 Department of Biomedicine, Clinical and Translational Immunology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  6. 6 Clinic for Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  1. Correspondence to Dr Antje Bischof, Immunology Clinic, Neurologic Clinic and Policlinic, Departments of Medicine, Clinical Research and Biomedicine, University Hospital and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; antje.bischof{at}usb.ch

https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2017-212045

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Peripheral nerve biopsy remains the gold standard for diagnosing vasculitic neuropathy (VN).1 This procedure is invasive, of limited sensitivity and not always feasible.2 A biomarker indicating acute axonal loss in patients with systemic vasculitis would allow rapid screening and adjustments of diagnostic or treatment strategies, potentially improving clinical outcome.3

    Neurofilaments are structural proteins specific to neurons that are released into blood and cerebrospinal fluid following neuronal damage. They have been suggested as a biomarker in various neurological diseases, mainly affecting the central nervous system.4–6 In patients with multiple sclerosis, serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) levels correlated with MRI and clinical disease activity/severity, were lower in patients under treatment and showed potential to predict future disease activity and disability.5

    In this retrospective study we aimed to test whether sNfL could serve as a marker of vasculitic damage of peripheral nerves and/or disease activity in patients with VN. Patients were recruited from our prospective local ethical board-approved vasculitis …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors Design or conceptualisation of the study: AB, ToD, JK, ThD. Analysis or interpretation of the data: AB, TM, CB, IH, CTB, ToD, JK, ThD. Drafting or revising the manuscript for intellectual content: AB, TM, CB, IH, CTB, ToD, JK, ThD.

    • Funding AB received grants from the Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft, Switzerland, and from the Gottfried and Julia Bangerter­Rhyner Foundation, Switzerland.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.