{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,3]],"date-time":"2026-07-03T18:12:57Z","timestamp":1783102377530,"version":"3.54.6"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,16]],"date-time":"2022-03-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1647388800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Medicina"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background and Objectives: The neurofilament light chain (NfL) is a biomarker for neuro-axonal injury in various acute and chronic neurological disorders, including Alzheimer\u2019s disease (AD). We here investigated the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between baseline serum NfL (sNfL) levels and cognitive, behavioural as well as MR volumetric findings in the Prospective Dementia Registry Austria (PRODEM-Austria). Materials and Methods: All participants were clinically diagnosed with AD according to NINCDS-ADRDA criteria and underwent a detailed clinical assessment, cognitive testing (including the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer\u2019s Disease (CERAD)), the neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI) and laboratory evaluation. A total of 237 patients were included in the study. Follow-up examinations were done at 6 months, 1 year and 2 years with 93.3% of patients undergoing at least one follow-up. We quantified sNfL by a single molecule array (Simoa). In a subgroup of 125 subjects, brain imaging data (1.5 or 3T MRI, with 1 mm isotropic resolution) were available. Brain volumetry was assessed using the FreeSurfer image analysis suite (v6.0). Results: Higher sNfL concentrations were associated with worse performance in cognitive tests at baseline, including CERAD (B = \u221210.084, SE = 2.999, p &lt; 0.001) and MMSE (B = \u22123.014, SE = 1.293, p = 0.021). The sNfL levels also correlated with the presence of neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPI total score: r = 0.138, p = 0.041) and with smaller volumes of the temporal lobe (B = \u22120.012, SE = 0.003, p = 0.001), the hippocampus (B = \u22120.001, SE = 0.000201, p = 0.013), the entorhinal (B = \u22120.000308, SE = 0.000124, p = 0.014), and the parahippocampal cortex (B = \u22120.000316, SE = 0.000113, p = 0.006). The sNfL values predicted more pronounced cognitive decline over the mean follow-up period of 22 months, but there were no significant associations with respect to change in neuropsychiatric symptoms and brain volumetric measures. Conclusions: the sNfL levels relate to cognitive, behavioural, and imaging hallmarks of AD and predicts short term cognitive decline.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/medicina58030433","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,16]],"date-time":"2022-03-16T22:15:04Z","timestamp":1647468904000},"page":"433","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":17,"title":["Serum NfL in Alzheimer Dementia: Results of the Prospective Dementia Registry Austria"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"58","author":[{"given":"Daniela","family":"Kern","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 22, 8036 Graz, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5350-3328","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michael","family":"Khalil","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 22, 8036 Graz, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4390-9703","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lukas","family":"Pirpamer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 22, 8036 Graz, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7381-2427","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Arabella","family":"Buchmann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 22, 8036 Graz, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Edith","family":"Hofer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 22, 8036 Graz, Austria"},{"name":"Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Documentation, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 2, 8036 Graz, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peter","family":"Dal-Bianco","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, W\u00e4hringer G\u00fcrtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4688-8482","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elisabeth","family":"St\u00f6gmann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, W\u00e4hringer G\u00fcrtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Christoph","family":"Scherfler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Anichstra\u00dfe 35, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Thomas","family":"Benke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Anichstra\u00dfe 35, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gerhard","family":"Ransmayr","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology 2, Faculty of Medicine, Kepler University Hospital, Krankenhausstra\u00dfe 9, 4020 Linz, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Reinhold","family":"Schmidt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 22, 8036 Graz, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"577","DOI":"10.1038\/s41582-018-0058-z","article-title":"Neurofilaments as Biomarkers in Neurological Disorders","volume":"14","author":"Khalil","year":"2018","journal-title":"Nat. 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