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In tandem with recent progress in basic and clinical research in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), clinical care and management has improved substantially. Key processes and practices have been established and are specified in current ALS Practice Parameters; the international ALS databases identify the current status of care and management given by physicians. A number of prospective clinical management research studies are now well underway to establish the effective utility of enteral feeding, assistive ventilatory device, and exercise in patients with ALS. One of the main research objectives in the clinical management of ALS is to improve patients' quality of life. For patients with ALS, only comprehensive multidisciplinary care can effectively improve their overall quality of life from diagnosis to death. This paper will briefly review a number of factors that must be considered if we are to improve the quality of life for these patients, including comprehensive medical management, patient education, the importance of hope, the role of the health care professional, and the patients themselves. (ALS 2000; 1: 329–336). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous attempts have been made to visualize the motor cortex and pyramidal tract lesions in patients with ALS using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET). This paper briefly reviews the applicability of these imaging modalities in ALS. (ALS 2000; 1(suppl 2): S3-S6). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electromyography (EMG) plays a key role in the diagnostic evaluation of ALS. This paper deals with the contribution of conventional needle EMG and electroneurography to the neurophysiological assessment of ALS. In addition, special EMG techniques such as single fibre EMG and macro EMG are discussed as they mirror the decline of the number of motor units during the disease process and the remodelling capacity of the surviving motor units. (ALS 2000; 1(suppl2):S33-S40). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their recent paper, Sugai et al. (1) reported a beneficial effect of valproate (VPA) in a G93A mouse model of ALS, showing a significant prolongation of disease duration, without any effect on disease onset. Although this result certainly needs to be further investigated, it is interesting to hypothesize that VPA might exert this beneficial action through a novel mechanism based on the epigenetic rearrangement of the structure of the chromatin, eventually resulting in the modulation of the disease phenotypic traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patient care and minimizing complications post gastrostomy have to date received little attention in ALS patients. We compare the complications associated with pigtail and mushroom type percutaneous radiological gastrostomy tubes in this patient group. Patients requiring PRG received either Wills‐Oglesby TM or the skin level Entristar TM . Retrospective review of the clinical notes was performed capturing demographic data, peristomal infection, tube displacement, tube failure, nutritional status, site of disease onset, and survival. Thirty‐five patients (Group 1) had the Wills‐Oglesby TM tube of which 14 (40%) tubes required replacement. The Entristar TM tube was inserted in 29 patients (Group 2) where 8 (28%) required replacement (NS). The incidence of infection was significantly lower with the Entristar TM tube, ( p [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is caused by mutations in the gene for Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) in 10% of familial and sporadic cases. During the SOD1 analysis of 9 FALS and 121 SALS, in only one sporadic case we found the exonic mutation N19S; in 15 SALS patients we found a 319t>a variation in IVS1 sequence, at 108 bp upstream from exon 2. This variation has an unusually high frequency of 11% and is always in linkage disequilibrium with a described polymorphism in IVS3, +34a>c. The 319t>a variation is classified in two different public databases, HGMD and The ALS Online Database, as a splicing mutation and not as a polymorphism. The unusually high frequency of this mutation in our patients prompted us to determinate its frequency in 130 age- and gender- matched healthy controls and in 54 patients with Alzheimer's disease. We found again linkage disequilibrium with the polymorphism in intron 3, and the frequency of 11% and 7.8%, respectively. These results strongly support the idea that the IVS1 +319 t>a alone is not an ALS causing mutation, and that special care must be taken in the interpretation of data from mutations databases for correct genetic counselling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe designs for clinical trials in ALS including two that are more efficient than the standard two-arm, parallel design. The more efficient designs incorporate a lead-in period followed by a randomized intervention (drug or placebo) period. Efficacy of the more efficient designs is based on measuring, within each patient, the difference in slope while on the new treatment compared to the lead-in period. We demonstrate, with sample size calculations, that the lead-in designs are considerably more efficient than the standard two-arm, parallel design. Sample sizes can be reduced by 44% for a 12-month study using ALSFRS rate of decline as a primary endpoint for a two-arm trial with 4 months lead-in compared to a parallel design. A sample size reduction of 70% can be realized with variable lead-in compared to a parallel design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ALSFRS-R is an attractive primary outcome measure in clinical trials of ALS because it is validated, easy to administer, minimizes dropout, reduces cost, and correlates with survival. Unlike the other standard outcome measures currently employed, the ALSFRS-R is also a measure of global function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting motor neurons. We report the safety and functional efficacy results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II study of xaliproden, a non-peptidic compound with growth factor activities, in 54 ALS patients treated for up to 32 weeks. In order to overcome the interference of mortality with functional assessment in exploratory studies, we identified from our ALS database prognostic factors to establish a staging process for selection pf patients: age, disease duration, slopes of deterioration of the functional scores calculated during the two months prior to the inclusion, and the value at entry of the forced vital capacity (FVC). The six months intent-to-treat analysis showed no statistically significant effect but a trend in favour of 2 mg xaliproden compared to placebo for reduction in the rate of deterioration of FVC, limbs functional score, and manual muscle testing score (MMT). The results in the completer analysis showed a significant 43% slower rate of deterioration in FVC ( P =0.046) in xaliproden-treated patients but not in functional and MMT scores. These results support the use of a staging process to select suitable patients for phase II studies, and suggest that xaliproden may have potential effects in ALS and deserve further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have shown in a mouse model of motor neuron disease, the legs-at-odd-angles ( Loa ) mutant, and that mutations in the cytoplasmic dynein heavy chain gene ( Dnchc1 ) cause motor neuron degeneration. Mice exhibiting the Loa phenotype suffer progressive loss of locomotor function and homozygous animals have neuronal inclusion bodies that are positive for SOD1 , CDK5, neurofilament and ubiquitin proteins. As this phenotype models some aspects of human motor neuron degeneration disorders, we think there is a reasonable likelihood that dynein may be a causative gene or susceptibility factor in human motor neuron disease. Therefore we have screened exons of this gene in a set of human patients with familial forms of disparate motor neuron degeneration diseases, affecting both upper and lower motor neurons: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), and hereditary spastic paraplegia. As part of this study, we have determined that DNCHC1 is a large gene of 78 exons spanning 86 kb genomic length. We have focused on the exons known to be mutated in Loa , and in a very similar mouse mutation, cramping 1 ( Cra1 ); both mutations result in loss of anterior horn cells. The exons studied are highly conserved in a wide range of eukaryotes. We screened our patient samples by sequencing and although we detect single nucleotide polymorphisms, our results show these occur at the same frequency in our patient group as in control samples of unaffected individuals. Therefore we do not find any association between familial motor neuron disease and the genotypes presented here in the exons screened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

METHOD: The adapted multiple point stimulation (AMPS) method for calculating motor unit numbers (MUNE) was applied in 12 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) before riluzole therapy (T[sub 0]) and again after 4, 8 and 12 months of treatment. RESULTS: Paired Student's t-test indicated a significant decrease of thenar MUNE and compound muscle action potential (CMAP) size at each 4-monthly interval, while average surface motor unit potential (SMUP) size did not change significantly over time. The rate of motor unit (MU) loss at month 4 was more than 20% in six patients (group 1) and less than 20% in six other patients (group 2). Comparison of groups 1 and 2 by Mann-Whitney U-testing indicated that percent changes in thenar MUNE and CMAP size compared to baseline were significantly different at months 4, 8 and 12, while no difference between the two groups was found for average SMUP size variations. In the group with a slow rate of MU loss, CMAP size remained stable, while in the group with a rapid rate of MU loss, there was a dramatic reduction in size of the CMAP. A positive correlation was found between percent change in thenar MUNE at T[sub 4] and at T[sub 12] (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: AMPS is a useful technique to document MUNE, SMUP size and CMAP size changes over time in patients with ALS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The only known gene to be involved in ALS is the CuZn-superoxide dismutase (CuZn-SOD) gene. Since 1993, 89* disease-associated mutations have been found in this gene, 14 of them in cases with apparently sporadic ALS. Most frequent are the D90A (most often with recessive inheritance, but a few with dominant inheritance) and the I113T (dominant inheritance with variable penetrance). Statistical and genealogical evidence suggest that quite a number of diagnosed sporadic cases may in fact be familial cases in pedigrees with very low disease penetrance. (ALS 2001; 2 (suppl 1): S37–S41). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positron emission tomography (PET) has enabled us to study the human brain with unrivalled sensitivity, and has already established its place in the research of neurological conditions such as Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. PET has been used as a tool in the study of patients with motor neuron disease (MND) for well over ten years now, but its potential in diagnosis and to identify surrogate markers of disease expression (phenotype) and progression has yet to be fully realized. The early studies using 2- [sup 18]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose to measure regional changes in cerebral metabolic rate for glucose gave the first clues to the more widespread involvement of the brain in MND. Later studies exploited the development of activation studies using [sup 15]O-containing tracers, which allowed correlation with neuropsychological mea sures, and the refinement of mapping techniques to delineate the extra-motor areas involved in the disease process. More recently, studies involving ligands such as [sup 11]C-flumazenil have allowed the exploration of functional reorganisation in MND, and inhibitory interneuronal pathways which may be crucial in modulation of disease expression. In the future new ligands will be applied in combination with other modalities of investigation (multimodal magnetic resonance imaging; neurophysiological studies) in order to understand the pathophysiology of this heterogeneous condition. Although the potential of PET has not yet been realized in ALS, it is likely to play a part in defining new diagnostic and surrogate markers of disease extent and severity. (ALS 2000; 1(suppl 2):S17-S22). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]