December 30, 2022
1 minute read
Source/Disclosure
Disclosure:
Fundaun does not report related financial disclosures. See research for relevant financial disclosures of all other authors.
Blood-based measurements of neurofilament light chains have been associated with the presence of neuronal damage in patients with peripheral neuropathy. JAMA network opened.
“Peripheral neuropathy is a common condition that can cause numbness, paresthesia, movement disorders, and pain. There is growing evidence for the use of biomarkers as clinical indicators of the presence, severity, and prognosis of neuropathy. I have.” Joel Fandown, DPT, Written by a PhD candidate and colleague at the University of Oxford.
Using neurofilament light chains as a blood-based measure, nerve damage was shown to be present in people with peripheral neuropathy. Source: Adobe Stock
Fundaun et al. sought to assess blood-based biomarker concentrations associated with neuropathy in patients with peripheral neuropathy. The authors included observational studies that reported on blood biomarkers in patients diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy.
Researchers meta-analyzed data when at least two studies reported on the same biomarkers with comparable methodologies. A fixed-effect model was used when only two studies were included for the same biomarker. A random-effects model was used when more than one study was included.
Thirty-six studies reporting on 4,414 participants were evaluated. This included 2,113 controls and 2,301 patients with peripheral neuropathy with 13 different peripheral neuropathy diagnoses. Diabetic neuropathy was the most common neuropathy diagnosis (13 studies), followed by Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (6 studies) and Guillain-Barre syndrome (6 studies).
Overall, 16 blood-based biomarkers associated with neural involvement were evaluated. The most used were neurofilament light chain, S100B, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and neuron-specific enolase.
Patients with peripheral neuropathy showed higher levels of neurofilament light chains compared to controls (standard mean difference = 0.93; 95% CI, 0.82-1.05). S100B (SMD = 1.1; 95% CI, -3.08 to 5.28), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (SMD = –0.52; 95% CI, -2.23 to 1.19) or neuron-specific enolase (SMD = 0; 95% CI, –1.99 to 1.98), peripheral neuropathy patients compared with controls.
“Compared to other neuro-related biomarkers, [neurofilament light] It was consistently increased in patients with various types of peripheral neuropathy compared with control participants,” the authors wrote.
