Wei-Che Lin1, Cheng-Hsien Lu2, Pai-Yi Chiu3, Shieh-Yueh Yang4,5. 1. Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. 2. Department of Diagnostic Neurology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. 3. Department of Neurology, Show Chwan Memorial Hospital and MR-guided Focus Ultrasound Center, Chang Bin Show Chwan Memorial Hospital, Chunghwa, Taiwan. 4. MagQu Co., Ltd., New Taipei City, Taiwan, syyang@magqu.com. 5. MagQu LLC, Surprise, Arizona, USA, syyang@magqu.com.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: A previously published paper (referred to as the original cohort) showed that using a cutoff value of 116.1 fg/mL for the plasma total α-synuclein concentrations could discriminate Parkinson's disease (PD) patients from normal controls (NCs). In this study, another independent cohort (referred to as the validation cohort) was recruited to validate the agreement between the clinical diagnosis and the use of plasma total α-synuclein to identify PD patients. In addition to total α-synuclein, plasma neurofilament light chain (NfL) in the validation cohort was detected. METHODS: Seventy PD patients and 33 NCs were enrolled in the validation cohort. A clinical diagnosis and the immunomagnetic reduction (IMR) assay for plasma total α-synuclein were performed for each participant. Thirty-three of 70 PD patients and 23 of 33 NCs were subjected to the plasma NfL assay via IMR. RESULTS: The positive, negative, and overall percentages of agreement between the clinical diagnosis and plasma total α-synuclein diagnosis determined based on 116.1 fg/mL as the cutoff value were found to be 0.943, 0.818, and 0.903, respectively. The PD patients and NCs showed plasma NfL levels of 8.38 ± 4.19 pg/mL and 17.6 ± 7.95 pg/mL (p < 0.001), respectively. The cutoff value of the plasma NfL level used to differentiate PD patients from NCs was 12.8 pg/mL, with sensitivity and specificity values of 0.788 and 0.870, respectively. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate the usefulness of the plasma total α-synuclein concentration to discriminate PD patients from NCs and reveal the elevation of the plasma NfL level in PD patients.
BACKGROUND: A previously published paper (referred to as the original cohort) showed that using a cutoff value of 116.1 fg/mL for the plasma total α-synuclein concentrations could discriminate Parkinson's disease (PD) patients from normal controls (NCs). In this study, another independent cohort (referred to as the validation cohort) was recruited to validate the agreement between the clinical diagnosis and the use of plasma total α-synuclein to identify PDpatients. In addition to total α-synuclein, plasma neurofilament light chain (NfL) in the validation cohort was detected. METHODS: Seventy PDpatients and 33 NCs were enrolled in the validation cohort. A clinical diagnosis and the immunomagnetic reduction (IMR) assay for plasma total α-synuclein were performed for each participant. Thirty-three of 70 PDpatients and 23 of 33 NCs were subjected to the plasma NfL assay via IMR. RESULTS: The positive, negative, and overall percentages of agreement between the clinical diagnosis and plasma total α-synuclein diagnosis determined based on 116.1 fg/mL as the cutoff value were found to be 0.943, 0.818, and 0.903, respectively. The PDpatients and NCs showed plasma NfL levels of 8.38 ± 4.19 pg/mL and 17.6 ± 7.95 pg/mL (p < 0.001), respectively. The cutoff value of the plasma NfL level used to differentiate PDpatients from NCs was 12.8 pg/mL, with sensitivity and specificity values of 0.788 and 0.870, respectively. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate the usefulness of the plasma total α-synuclein concentration to discriminate PDpatients from NCs and reveal the elevation of the plasma NfL level in PDpatients.