Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34635674›Full record

ArticleNPJ Parkinson's disease2021

Neurofilament light chain and α-synuclein RT-QuIC as differential diagnostic biomarkers in parkinsonisms and related syndromes.

Corinne Quadalti, Giovanna Calandra-Buonaura, Simone Baiardi, Andrea Mastrangelo, Marcello Rossi, Corrado Zenesini, Giulia Giannini, Niccolò Candelise, Luisa Sambati, Barbara Polischi and 4 more

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in NPJ Parkinson's disease, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 79 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
79citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
7.4field-weighted citation impact, top 2% 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

79 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 114 citations in OpenAlex.

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  9. Clinical and Imaging Characteristics of Parkinson's Disease with Negative Alpha-Synuclein Seed Amplification Assay.Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society · 2026
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19 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

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

14 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Corinne QuadaltiIRCCS, Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0302-3027
Giovanna Calandra-BuonauraIRCCS, Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Simone BaiardiIRCCS, Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Andrea MastrangeloDepartment of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences (DIBINEM), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Marcello RossiIRCCS, Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Corrado ZenesiniIRCCS, Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Giulia GianniniDepartment of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences (DIBINEM), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Niccolò CandeliseIRCCS, Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Luisa SambatiDepartment of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences (DIBINEM), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Barbara PolischiIRCCS, Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Giuseppe PlazziIRCCS, Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Sabina CapellariIRCCS, Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Pietro CortelliIRCCS, Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Piero ParchiIRCCS, Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italy. piero.parchi@unibo.it.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9444-9524
Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna · ITUniversity of Bologna · ITUniversity of Modena and Reggio Emilia · IT

Funding

Ministero della Salute (Ministry of Health, Italy) Ricerca Corrente
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Neurofilament light chain (NfL) and α-synuclein oligomeric seeds (α-syn-s) are promising biomarkers for patients with parkinsonism. We assessed their performance in discriminating Parkinson disease (PD) from atypical parkinsonisms (APDs) and evaluated the association between NfL levels and clinical measures of disease severity. We measured NfL in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and/or plasma by immunoassays and α-syn-s in CSF by real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) in patients with PD (n = 153), multiple system atrophy (MSA) (n = 80), progressive supranuclear palsy/cortico-basal syndrome (PSP/CBS) (n = 58), dementia with Lewy bodies (n = 64), isolated REM-sleep behaviour disorder (n = 19), and isolated autonomic failure (n = 30). Measures of disease severity included disease duration, UPDRS-III score, Hoehn and Yahr stage, orthostatic hypotension, MMSE score, and CSF amyloid-beta profile. Both CSF NfL (cNfL) and plasma NfL (pNfL) levels were markedly elevated in APDs, and allowed differentiation with PD (vs. APDs, cNfL AUC 0.96; pNfL AUC 0.95; vs. MSA cNfL AUC 0.99; pNfL AUC 0.97; vs. PSP/CBS cNfL AUC 0.94; pNfL AUC 0.94). RT-QuIC detected α-syn-s in 91.4% of PD, but only 2.5% of APDs (all MSA). In PD/PDD, motor scales significantly correlated with cNfL levels. Although pNfL and both cNfL and α-syn-s accurately distinguished PD from APDs, the combined assessment of CSF markers provided a higher diagnostic value (PD vs. APDs AUC 0.97; vs. MSA AUC 0.97; vs. PSP/CBS AUC 0.99) than RT-QuIC alone (p = 0.047 vs. APDs; p = 0.002 vs MSA; p = 0.007 vs PSP/CBS), or cNfL alone (p = 0.011 vs. APDs; p = 0.751 vs MSA; p = 0.0001 vs. PSP/CBS). The results support the use of these assays in specialised clinics.

Identifiers

PMID34635674
PMCPMC8505434
OpenAlexW3205520289

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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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.