Association between Serum Neurofilament Light Chain Level and Cognitive Performance in Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Abstract Background Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the central nervous system (CNS) in young adults causing demyelination in its nerve fibers which lead to axonal damage resulting in many potential symptoms physically, mentally and even psychiatric symptoms. It’s also an autoimmune disease so it’s a lifelong condition which progress along its course through life. Aim of the Work To study the relationship between cognitive function and serum level of (NFL) in patients with MS. Patients and Methods cross sectional pilot study conducted on 64 Patients with clinically definite relapsing remitting MS and recruited from the MS unit, Ain Shams university. 32 MS patients according to inclusion criteria and 32 MS patients with no cognitive impairment, as a control group. Both groups were between 20 to 40 years old. Results we found a strong connection between cognitive function (measured by the SDMT) and the level of sNfL. This suggests that higher levels of sNfL may be linked to poorer cognitive function in individuals with MS. Additionally, the study provides a cut-off value of > 5.9, which can be utilized to classify cases as positive or negative. Conclusion found a highly statistically significant difference between the cases and the control group, indicating a strong relationship between cognitive function (measured by the SDMT) and the level of sNfL in patients with MS. This suggests that higher sNfL levels may be associated with worse cognitive function in MS patients. The cut-off value of > 5.9 is also provided, which can be used to classify cases as positive or negative.