abstract   background: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (als) is a progressive neurological disorder with high mortality and morbidity. some risk factors have been implicated for als such as exposure to high magnetic fields, and trace elements like selenium, cadmium and lead. afew studies have been carried out throughout the world to evaluate the prevalence of als among veterans. this study was ai...

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with uncertain etiology. for many years, viruses have been suspected as causative agents. there are conflicting reports about the possible role of viruses such as human herpes virus 8 (hhv8) and retroviruses in the pathogenesis of the sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. we conducted a prospective case-control study to ...

background: despite the genetic heterogeneity reported in familial als (fals), sod1 gene mutations are the most frequent cause of fals, accounting for around 20% of familial cases (als1) and isolated sporadic cases. mutant forms of sod1 exhibit toxicity that promotes the death of motor neurons. it is well documented that fals produces protein aggregates in the motor neurons of fals patients, wh...

background: the rapidity of progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (als) to death or respiratory failure impacts patients, clinicians, and clinical investigators. the aim of this study is to evaluate of the pulmonary function tests (pfts) in patients with als and the association between these pfts and survival methods: a total of 36 als patients who pfts, including vital capacity (vc), ma...

background: as a disease of motor nervous system (motor neuron  disease), amyotrophic  lateral  sclerosis (als)  has  a great  impact  on  several  aspects  of  quality  of  life (qol). generic questionnaires of qol do not address all the especial features  of als and  therefore  translation  and  validation of disease specific questionnaires such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis assessment  qu...

Objective. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism-dementia complex is classified as one of the tauopathies. Methods. The total tau, phosphorylated tau, and amyloid β42 levels were assayed in cerebrospinal fluid from patients with Kii amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism-dementia complex (n = 12), Alzheimer's disease (n = 9), Parkinson's disease (n = 9), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (...

Acquired neuromyotonia encompasses a group of inflammatory disorders characterized by symptoms reflecting peripheral nerve hyperexcitability, which may be clinically confused in the early stages with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Despite a clear peripheral nerve focus, it remains unclear whether the ectopic activity in acquired neuromyotonia receives a central contribution. To clarify whether ...

Mutations in the gene superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) are causative for familial forms of the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. When the first SOD1 mutations were identified they were postulated to give rise to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis through a loss of function mechanism, but experimental data soon showed that the disease arises from a—still unknown—toxic gain of func...

Diffusion tensor imaging can identify amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-associated patterns of brain alterations at the group level. Recently, a neuropathological staging system for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has shown that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis may disseminate in a sequential regional pattern during four disease stages. The objective of the present study was to apply a new methodologica...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease of motor neurons with a median survival of 2 years. Most patients have no family history of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, but current understanding of such diseases suggests there should be an increased risk to relatives. Furthermore, it is a common question to be asked by patients and relatives in clinic. We therefore set out to det...