The survival rate of medical emergencies depends highly on the intervention time and prompt medical care on the scene. The idea of “bring the doctor and medical equipment to the spot” was born in Hungary in the mid-1950s. The demand for advanced life support was a consequence of the fast growth of industry and traffic. It is worthwhile to review the development of the idea, the therapeutic meth...

BACKGROUND In recent years, there has been a paradigm shift in the method of healthcare delivery to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients with the emergence of multidisciplinary ALS clinics that cater exclusively for patients with this condition. The impact of multidisciplinary management has not been previously evaluated. METHODS Using data from the Irish ALS Register, we conducted a ...

Skin allografts survived longer on ALS-treated, complement-deficient (C5 negative) recipients than on ALS-treated, complement-competent (C5 positive) recipients. Administration of C5-positive serum to C5-negative, ALS-treated recipients resulted in reduced graft survival. A percentage of grafts from ALS-treated, C5-positive donors was rejected when transferred to untreated syngeneic recipients;...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting motor neurons of the brain, brainstem and spinal cord. To date, mutations in more than 30 genes have been linked to the pathogenesis of ALS. Among them, SOD1, FUS and TARDBP are ranked as the three most common genes associated with ALS. However, no mutation analysis has been reported in central-southern China. In...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES We earlier reported elevated chemokine ligand-2 (CCL2) in Indian amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. We now analysed chemokine receptor-2 (CCR2), the receptor of CCL2, in these ALS patients. METHODS Indian sporadic ALS patients (n=50) were included on the basis of El Escorial criteria. Percentage (%) of CCR2 expressing peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PB...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Recent studies suggest that antecedent disease could impact the pathophysiology of the motoneuron disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). We performed a case-control study to examine the prevalence of 11 antecedent diseases in ALS. METHODS Prevalence of antecedent disease in a 1,288 patient ALS population (Emory University ALS Clinic, Atlanta, Ga., USA) is compared to an ...

Citation: The ALS Association Media Relations. The ALS Association: Fighting Lou Gehrig disease on multiple fronts. Rare Diseases 2013; 1:e24910; http:// dx.doi.org/10.4161/rdis.24910 Correspondence to: The ALS Association Email: [email protected] Since 1985, The ALS Association has worked with people and their families living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (Fig. 1). AL...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that results in progressive degeneration of motor neurons, ultimately leading to paralysis and death. Approximately 10% of ALS cases are familial, with the remaining 90% of cases being sporadic. Genetic studies in familial cases of ALS have been extremely informative in determining the causative mutations behind ALS,...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive and fatal neuromuscular disease; the majority of ALS patients die within 2-5 years of receiving a diagnosis (1). Familial ALS, a hereditary form of the disease, accounts for 5%-10% of cases, whereas the remaining sporadic cases have no clearly defined etiology (1). ALS affects persons of all races and ...

There is evidence that immunological factors may involved in the pathogenetic mechanisms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Few studies to date have explored the status of the humoral immune response in patients with ALS. We examined the presence of humoral immune activation in ALS patients, serum immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA and IgM) levels were measured in 36 patients with ALS and 35 normal...