Serum neurofilament light chain levels are associated with stroke severity and functional outcome in patients undergoing endovascular therapy for large vessel occlusion

Abstract

Background: We aimed to analyze serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) levels in patients undergoing endovascular therapy (EVT) for anterior circulation large vessel occlusion (acLVO).

Methods: Prospective study of consecutive patients with acLVO receiving EVT (12/2020-01/2021). sNfL was serially measured prior to and at 30-min, 6-h, 12-h, 24-h, 48-h and 7-days following EVT. ANOVA and Spearman correlation were run to assess sNfL levels (ie, absolute values) and ΔsNfL levels (ie, absolute values subtracted by baseline value) and their association with clinical (ie, NIHSS), imaging (ie, ASPECTS) surrogates of stroke severity as well as functional outcome (ie, mRS) at 90-days.

Results: 175 sNfL samples were retrieved from 25 patients. While there were no differences among serial sNfL levels in the first 12-h post-EVT, a constant increase was observed afterwards (maximum day 7, median: 383 [IQR, 209-907] pg/mL, p < 0.001). ΔsNfL showed a constant increase from 30-min measurement onwards peaking after 7 days (median 363.5 [IQR, 114.3-851.1] pg/mL). sNfL levels at 7 days correlated with ASPECTS post-EVT (r = -0.59, p < 0.001), NIHSS at discharge (r = -0.50, p = 0.011) and mRS at 90-days (r = 0.45, p = 0.027).

Conclusions: Serum NFL may complement established clinical and imaging predictors of treatment response and functional outcome in stroke patients undergoing EVT for acLVO.

Keywords: Biomarker; Endovascular therapy; Large vessel occlusion; Prognosis.