%0 Journal Article
%T Clinical spreading of muscle weakness in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): a study in 910 patients.
%A Ludolph AC
%A Dietrich J
%A Dreyhaupt J
%A Kassubek J
%A Del Tredici K
%A Rosenbohm A
%J J Neurol
%V 271
%N 8
%D 2024 Aug 6
%M 38970668
%F 6.682
%R 10.1007/s00415-024-12408-y
%X <B>BACKGROUND: </B>Neuroanatomical staging of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) indicates that neurodegeneration may spread corticofugally.<BR><B>METHODS: </B>We conducted an observational study to define the initial sites of disease onset and the clinical progression ('spreading patterns') of motor deficits in a cohort of 910 ALS patients in Germany.<BR><B>RESULTS: </B>Mean age of ALS onset was 59.0 ± 12.6 years for males and 61.2 ± 10.5 years for females, the mean ALSFRS-R was 35.1 ± 9.2, and 7.7% of the cohort reported a family history. Onset of motor symptoms was bulbar/upper limb in 26.8%/35.9%, the right arm initially being slightly more often affected than the left (18.5% vs.16.3%). Testing on concordance of handedness and onset in the dominant arm did not reach significance. Lower limb onset was observed in 37.3%. Unilateral limb onset patients reported horizontal spreading about three times more often than vertical spreading. 71/244 bulbar onset patients reported spreading pattern to the legs, and 17/339 lumbar onset patients reported spreading secondarily to the bulbar region.<BR><B>CONCLUSIONS: </B>Our results indicate that, although the phenotype of so-called 'spinal' or 'intraspinal' spreading predominated, we also observed an additional clinical spreading pattern: 29.1% of patients with bulbar onset experienced spreading clinically to the legs (vice versa in 5.0% of lumbar onset patients). For obvious neuroanatomical reasons, this pattern hardly can be explained solely by a 'spinal' or an 'intraspinal' pattern of spreading. Instead, these findings complement insights from previous clinical and clinicopathological studies supporting a cortical initiation of ALS.