Neurofilament light as a biomarker in traumatic brain injury

Objective: To determine whether serum neurofilament light (NfL) correlates with CSF NfL, traumatic brain injury (TBI) diagnosis, injury severity, brain volume, and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) estimates of traumatic axonal injury (TAI).

Methods: Participants were prospectively enrolled in Sweden and the United States between 2011 and 2019. The Swedish cohort included 45 hockey players with acute concussion sampled at 6 days, 31 with repetitive concussion with persistent postconcussive symptoms (PCS) assessed with paired CSF and serum (median 1.3 years after concussion), 28 preseason controls, and 14 nonathletic controls. Our second cohort included 230 clinic-based participants (162 with TBI and 68 controls). Patients with TBI also underwent serum, functional outcome, and imaging assessments at 30 (n=30), 90 (n=48), and 180 (n=59) days and 1 (n=84), 2 (n=57), 3 (n= 46), 4 (n = 38), and 5 (n = 29) years after injury.

Results: In athletes with paired specimens, CSF NfL and serum Nf...