Neurofilament Light Chain: A Candidate Biomarker of Perioperative Stroke

Published on July 7, 2022

Imagine you’re a detective trying to solve a puzzling case. You have a suspect, but you need concrete evidence to prove their guilt. In the medical world, perioperative stroke is the perplexing case, and neurofilament light chain is the vital clue we’ve been searching for. Like a fingerprint at a crime scene, this protein, found exclusively in neurons, can be released into the cerebrospinal fluid and blood when there’s damage to the brain’s nerve fibers. Recent research suggests that measuring levels of neurofilament light chain in the blood could help identify perioperative stroke, providing the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for in detecting this elusive condition. This exciting discovery opens up new possibilities for diagnosing and managing perioperative stroke more effectively. Now, it’s time for scientists to dive deeper into this mystery and conduct further research to fully unlock the potential of neurofilament light chain as a biomarker for perioperative stroke.

Perioperative stroke is defined as a brain infarction of ischemic or hemorrhagic etiology that occurs during surgery or within 30 days after surgery. However, identifying perioperative stroke is challenging. Thus, the discovery and validation of neurological biomarkers for perioperative stroke are urgently needed. Neurofilament forms part of the neuronal cytoskeleton and is exclusively expressed in neurons. After disease-related neuroaxonal damage occurs, neurofilament light chain protein is released into the cerebrospinal fluid and blood. Blood neurofilament light chain has recently been shown to serve as a potential marker of interest during the perioperative period. Therefore, the aim of the present review was to give an overview of the current understanding and knowledge of neurofilament light chain as a potential biomarker of perioperative stroke.

Read Full Article (External Site)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>