Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34131656›Full record

ReviewFaculty reviews2021

Neurofilament light: a narrative review on biomarker utility.

Shilpa Narayanan, Akshay Shanker, Tanvi Khera, Balachundhar Subramaniam

Open access · diamondAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Faculty reviews, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
33citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
5.3field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

33 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 51 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Review
  13. Peripherin, A New Promising Biomarker in Neurological Disorders.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025
    Review
  14. Article
  15. Blood-Based Biomarkers in Frontotemporal Dementia: A Narrative Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024
    Review
  16. Review
  17. Review
  18. Observational
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Shilpa NarayananDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Akshay ShankerDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Tanvi KheraDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Balachundhar SubramaniamDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center · USTemple University · USUniversity of Milano-Bicocca · IT

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Neurofilament light (NfL) is a scaffolding protein that is located primarily within myelinated axons and that provides increased conduction speed and structural support. In recent years, NfL has been used as a disease biomarker on the basis of the observation that axonal injury results in elevated levels of NfL in cerebrospinal fluid or blood. This review focuses on how cerebrospinal fluid and plasma NfL have been studied in various disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and multiple sclerosis (MS) in relation to neuroinflammation and cognitive dysfunction. Focusing on the role of NfL as a biomarker for AD and MS, this review aims to further explore the potential of NfL as a promising biomarker with regard to surgery- and anesthesia-based incidents for postoperative cognitive decline and delirium. A search of the PubMed database yielded 36 articles, 31 of which are from within the last 3 years, that show how NfL has been observed and studied under various types of trials and disease cohorts and potential future directions. Higher levels of NfL have frequently been correlated with disease progression and prognosis of AD and MS, and delirium has been found to share a neuroinflammatory pathophysiology that NfL could help to measure. Focusing on NfL as a biomarker for neurodegenerative decline, these studies indicate that the protein could be further tested and related to postoperative aspects that result in cognitive dysfunction, and it has the potential to be an established delirium biomarker, particularly in the realm of the perioperative course.

Indexed as

biomarkercardiac surgerydeliriumneurodegenerationNeurofilament LightneuroinflammationNfL

Identifiers

PMID34131656
PMCPMC8170685
OpenAlexW3160408661

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.