Observational studyAnnals of clinical and translational neurology2023
Neurofilament light chain levels predict encephalopathy and outcome in community-acquired pneumonia.
Observational study in Annals of clinical and translational neurology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Observational
- Neuropathologic Autopsy Findings in Pediatric Sepsis: A Two-Center, Retrospective Study.Pediatric critical care medicine : a journal of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies · 2026Article
- Potential role of serological biomarkers in the diagnosis and prediction of community-acquired pneumonia in elderly individuals.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Review
- Diagnostic markers of acute encephalitis syndrome and COVID-associated multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children from Southern India.Journal of medical virology · 2024Article
- Neurofilament Light Chain as a Biomarker of Neuronal Damage in Children With Malaria.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Serum NFL and tau, but not serum UCHL-1 and GFAP or CSF SNAP-25, NPTX2, or sTREM2, correlate with delirium in a 3-year retrospective analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
- Low-dose PLX5622 treatment prevents neuroinflammatory and neurocognitive sequelae after sepsis.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2023Article
- Neurofilament light chains to assess sepsis-associated encephalopathy: Are we on the track toward clinical implementation?Critical care (London, England) · 2023Review
- Septic encephalopathy in the elderly - biomarkers of potential clinical utility.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2023Review
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveSerum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) is a biomarker for neuroaxonal damage and has been found to be elevated in several neurological diseases with neuronal destruction. New onset of confusion is a hallmark of severity in infections. The objective of this study was to determine whether sNfL levels are increased in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and if increased sNfL levels are associated with disease-associated confusion or disease severity.
methodsIn this observational study, sNfL levels were determined with single-molecule array technology in CAP patients of the CAPNETZ cohort with validated CRB (confusion, respiratory rate, and blood pressure)-65 score. We determined associations between log-transformed sNfL concentrations, well-defined clinical characteristics, and unfavorable outcome in multivariable analyses. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to assess the prediction accuracy of sNfL levels for confusion in CAP patients.
resultssNfL concentrations were evaluated in 150 CAP patients. Patients with confusion had higher sNfL levels as compared to non-confusion patients of comparable overall disease severity. ROC analysis of sNfL and confusion provided an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.73 (95% CI 0.62-0.82). Log-transformed sNfL levels were not associated with general disease severity. In a logistic regression analysis, log2-sNfL was identified as a strong predictor for an unfavorable outcome.
interpretationsNfL levels are specifically associated with confusion and not with pneumonia disease severity, thus reflecting a potential objective marker for encephalopathy in these patients. Furthermore, sNfL levels are also associated with unfavorable outcome in these patients and might help clinicians to identify patients at risk.
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