Some ALS patients also present mild cognitive or behavioral dysfunction in the middle and/or late stages (Hobson and McDermott, 2016 Martin et al., 2017). Individuals affected by the disease may ultimately lose the ability to initiate and control all voluntary movement, although bladder and bowel function and the muscles responsible for eye movement are usually spared until the final stages of the disease (Sun et al., 2012 Hobson and McDermott, 2016 Niedermeyer et al., 2019). This disorder leads to muscle weakness and atrophy throughout the body, which is caused by the degeneration of both upper motor neurons (UMNs) and lower motor neurons (LMNs) (Riancho et al., 2019 Gonzalez-Fernandez et al., 2020). The main clinical manifestations of ALS are progressive stiffness, convulsions, and worsening muscle weakness caused by chronic muscle atrophy this results in difficulty in speech, dysphagia, and eventually dyspnea (Zarei et al., 2015 Brown and Al-Chalabi, 2017). Available from: Īmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a specific disease initiated by the death of neurons controlling voluntary muscles. Considerations on the concept, definition, and diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Keywords: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis clinical symptoms concept definition diagnosis familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis motor neuron disease muscle atrophy Standardizing the concept and definition of ALS and formulating clear diagnostic criteria will largely avoid many uncertainties in the future clinical research and treatment of ALS, which will greatly benefit patients. Therefore, future research should focus on the identification of reliable biomarkers-especially neuroimaging biomarkers-through autopsy. The identification of effective and objective biomarkers may be a feasible method for the early and accurate diagnosis of ALS. The concept and definition of ALS need to be further ascertained, and the current diagnostic criteria for ALS require further development. The current concepts and definitions of ALS have not yet been unified or standardized in clinical practice, and are sometimes vague or inaccurate, which can cause difficulties for neurologists in the clinical treatment of ALS. This article systematically reviews the literature on the history, current concepts, definition, and diagnosis of ALS, and discloses the present problems based on the retrieved literature and the authors’ clinical experience. The concept, definition, and diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) currently present some problems. YC2016-B027 and YC2015-S097 (both to RSX), Conflict of Interest: None 108 (to RSX) and the Innovation Fund Designated for Graduate Students of Jiangxi Province, No. 20181019 (to RSX) a grant from Jiangxi Provincial Department of Science and Technology Gan Po Elite 555, No. 47, 20142BBG70062, and 20171BAB215022 (all to RSX) a grant from Health and Family Planning Commission of Jiangxi Province, No. GJJ13198 and GJJ170021 (both to RSX) grants from Jiangxi Provincial Department of Science and Technology, No. 30560042, 8116010198 (all to RSX) grants from the Education Department of Jiangxi Province, No. Source of Support: The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. Considerations on the concept, definition, and diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosisĭepartment of Neurology, Jiangxi provincial People's Hospital, Affiliated People's Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China Date of Submissionĭepartment of Neurology, Jiangxi provincial People's Hospital, Affiliated People's Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province
0 kommentar(er)
