Table 4.

Associations between serum neurofilament light chain levels and MRI–derived deep gray matter volumes in HCs and PwMS.

Analysis of sNfL measure and MRI–derived DGM volumes		HCs (n = 47)			PwMS (n = 120)
		Baseline MRI	Longitudinal change in MRI		Baseline MRI	Longitudinal change in MRI
		Baseline sNfL	Baseline sNfL	sNfL change	Baseline sNfL	Baseline sNfL	sNfL change
DGM	Standardized β	0.026	−0.108	−0.261	−0.257	−0.386	0.121
	q‐value	0.963	0.963	0.553	0.017	<0.001	0.319
Thalamus	Standardized β	0.04	−0.085	−0.291	−0.216	−0.272	0.006
	q‐value	0.963	0.963	0.454	0.017	0.049	0.950
Caudate	Standardized β	−0.075	−0.091	−0.037	−0.263	−0.075	0.14
	q‐value	0.963	0.963	0.963	0.014	0.599	0.247
Putamen	Standardized β	0.075	0.039	−0.396	−0.196	−0.395	0.168
	q‐value	0.963	0.963	0.243	0.086	<0.001	0.143
Globus pallidus	Standardized β	−0.015	−0.215	−0.037	−0.187	−0.284	0.071
	q‐value	0.963	0.963	0.963	0.114	0.017	0.583
Hippocampus	Standardized β	0.065	−0.068	−0.107	−0.267	−0.027	0.03
	q‐value	0.963	0.963	0.963	0.015	0.939	0.925

MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; sNfL, serum neurofilament light chain; DGM, deep gray matter; HCs, healthy controls; PwMS, persons with multiple sclerosis.

Percentage longitudinal change was used for DGM outcomes.

Regression models using two blocks (block #1 correcting for age, sex, DMT use at baseline, and DMT change over the follow–up period as covariates and block #2 step‐wise addition of sNfL measure) were constructed. The standardized β and P‐value demonstrate the main effect of sNfL in the model. The P‐value from the regression models were corrected for false discovery rate using Benjamini‐Hochberg procedure. Q‐values <0.05 were considered significant and displayed in bold.