Dedeoğlu, Zeynep Nur; Uzun, Necati; Kılınç, İbrahim; Kılıç, Ahmet Osman

Purpose: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and the presence of restrictive, repetitive patterns of behaviour. Although its exact aetiology remains multifaceted and partially understood, recent clinical interest has shifted towards neurobiological substrates, specifically neuroaxonal and astroglial integrity. This study aims to compare serum levels of Neurofilament Light Chain (NfL), Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP), Tau and S100B between children with ASD and healthy controls, while investigating the influence of these biochemical variables on autism severity and behavioural manifestations. Methods: The study cohort consisted of 44 children (aged 24–72 months) diagnosed with ASD according to DSM-5-TR criteria and 40 age-matched healthy controls. Clinical assessments were conducted using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), the Aberrant Behaviour Checklist (ABC) and the Autism Behaviour Checklist. Serum concentrations of the targeted biomarkers were measured using the ELISA method from venous blood samples. Results: Serum NfL, Tau, GFAP and S100B concentrations did not differ significantly between children with ASD and healthy controls. Exploratory analyses suggested possible associations between selected biomarkers and clinical characteristics; however, these associations did not remain statistically significant after age adjustment and correction for multiple comparisons. Further studies using larger cohorts and ultrasensitive analytical platforms are needed to validate these preliminary findings. Conclusion: These findings indicate that serum NfL, Tau, GFAP and S100B did not differentiate children with ASD from healthy controls. Exploratory biomarker–clinical associations did not remain statistically significant after age adjustment and correction for multiple comparisons. Larger longitudinal studies using ultrasensitive analytical platforms are warranted.

Kart, Pinar Ozkan; Özdemir, Cihad; Kayikcioglu, Temel; Cansu, Ali

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the possible effect of HFOs detected in children with SeLECTS, who have rolandic spikes with or without ADHD, in predicting cognitive comorbidities with the fully automatic ripple detector program we developed. Methods: A total of 40 patients diagnosed with SeLECTS with at least a 1-year follow-up were included in this study. The patients were divided into two groups: those diagnosed with SeLECTS only and those diagnosed with SeLECTS+ADHD. For ripple detection, EEG data recorded for at least 10 min during non-REM stage 2 sleep with a sampling frequency of 2000 Hz was analysed in the MATLAB environment. After the data in each channel was filtered at 80–200 Hz, ripple detection was made with the fully automatically developed ripple detector program. Results: At least one ripple was detected in 29 of 40 patients (72.5%). The total number of spikes in both groups had a mean of 1435.8 ± 1626.9 (5–6183). The number of spikes in the rolandic region was found to be statistically significantly higher in the SeLECTS+ADHD group (p = 0.042). The total number of ripples in both groups was the mean: 9.5 ± 26.5 (0–158). The highest ripples count was detected in a patient in the SeLECTS+ADHD group; 158 ripples were counted, and the ripple distribution was found to be 33 ripples in the centrotemporal region and 125 ripples in the frontal region. The ripple of number (p = 0.009) and ripple ratio in the ‘Fz-Cz’ electrode were found to be statistically significantly higher in the SeLECTS + ADHD group (p = 0.009, p = 0.019, respectively). Significance: Our study showed that the presence of interictal scalp HFOs has the effect of predicting neurocognitive comorbidities. We think that ripple analysis with the can be used as a potential biomarker to predict neurocognitive comorbidities.