Neurofilament Light Chain And Voice Acoustic Analyses In Dementia Diagnosis

Baseline NfL level

Plasma Nfl (pg/ml), estimated using Quanterix SIMOA HD-X

Change in speech processing

Staff and/or self administered using Redenlab software and analysed by speech pathologist for acoustic measures of timing (e.g., pause length (seconds) in reading and monologue tasks), vocal control (e.g., fundamental frequency (hertz) and loudness variation (decibel) from vowel and monologue), and vocal quality (e.g., dysphonia measures derived from sustained vowel).

Change in language processing

Recorded by a member of the research team using Redenlab software and assessed by a speech therapist using Natural Language Processing techniques.

Change in Direct Magnitude Estimation

Perceptual rating of speech using Redenlab software; measuring intelligibility (i.e ability to be understood) and naturalness (deviation from healthy norm) of speech. Assessed by a speech therapist on a scale from 0 to 100; 0 indicates none of the speech is intelligible/natural, 100 indicates all the speech is intelligible/natural.

Modified Rankin Scale

Functional screen; assessed by member of the research team based on clinical notes. Assessed as change from baseline. Scores ranging from 0-5, with higher scores indicating greater disability.

Montreal Cognitive Assessment score

Cognitive screen; staff administered via telephone. Scores include overall MoCA score (0-22) and Memory Index Score (0-15), greater scores indicate greater cognition.

Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale score

Mood screen; staff administered via telephone. Scores include a total depression score (0-21) and total anxiety score (0-21); grouped according to normal (0-7), Borderline abnormal (8-10) and Abnormal (11-21).

Clinical Global Impression score

Global rating of improvement/change; staff administered via telephone. Scored on a 7 point scale, scores closer to 0 indicative of greater improvement and scores closer to 7 representing much worse).