Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Abstract

Charcot used the term ‘Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis’ (ALS), a description based on clinical and neuropathological features in patients assessed by him and studied at autopsy.1 Lord Brain in 1962 used the term Motor Neuron Disease to encompass entities constituting the other clinical manifestations: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, progressive bulbar palsy, and progressive muscular atrophy.2 Essentially, the two terms ALS and MND are currently considered synonymous and used to describe clinical entities derived from degeneration within the anterior horn cell and the pyramidal tracts to somatic and bulbar musculature with variable segmental involvement producing differing presentations in different patients.3 The clinical phenotype varies according to the segmental dysfunction within these parts of the neuraxis, which occurs at the time of clinical presentation.