Cerebrospinal fluid neurofilament light predicts the rate of executive function decline in younger-onset dementia

Determining disease severity and predicting prognosis in younger onset-dementia (YOD) remains challenging. Whether CSF biomarkers neurofilament light (NfL), tau and amyloidβ 42 (Aβ42) can help provide such information has been underexplored. Patients with YOD and CSF analysis were identified. We compared baseline NfL, tau and Aβ42 concentrations with contemporaneous Neuropsychiatry Unit Cognitive Assessment Tool (NUCOG) scores to assess their association with severity of cognitive impairment. Cognitive decline, as measured by longitudinal NUCOG assessment, was correlated against baseline biomarker levels to assess their utility in predicting the rate of cognitive decline. 78 patients with YOD (mean age = 56 years, SD = 8) and CSF analysis were identified. Dementia types included Alzheimer's disease, behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, dementia not-otherwise-specified and other. Tau was associated with contemporaneous memory dysfunction (r = −0.556, 95% CI:[−0.702,-0.393], p