Clinical Features and Biomarkers to Differentiate Primary and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in Patients With an Upper Motor Neuron Syndrome.

Objectives: Differentiation between primary (PLS) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) entails relevant consequences for prognosis and management but is mostly unreliable at early stages. The objectives of the study are (1) to determine the features at onset that could help to differentiate between PLS and ALS, (2) to evaluate the diagnostic performance of an integrated serum biomarker panel, and (3) to identify the prognostic factors for patients presenting with upper motor neuron (UMN) syndrome.

Methods: We selected and retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of patients presenting with UMN syndrome. At the first evaluation, when available, serum biomarkers were measured using ultrasensitive single molecule array.

Results: The study population included 55 patients with PLS and 50 patients with ALS. Patients with PLS presented a longer time to first neurologic evaluation (PLS: 35.0 months, interquartile range [IQR] 17.0-38.0 months; ALS: 12.5 months, IQR 7.0-21.3 months; < 0.01) and lower levels of neurofilament light chain (NfL) (PLS: 81.8 pg/mL, IQR 38.4-111.1 pg/mL; ALS: 155.9 pg/mL, IQR 85.1-366.4 pg/mL; = 0.01). Two patients with PLS and 3 patients with ALS carried the expansion. NfL resulted an independent predictor of final diagnosis (odds ratio 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.02; = 0.04) and an independent prognostic factor (hazard ratio 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.01; < 0.01).

Discussion: NfL might help to differentiate patients with PLS from patients with ALS and to predict prognosis in patients with UMN syndrome.