Longitudinal 1H MRS in advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Background: Standard MRI in patients suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) provides only little information on stage of disease and its progression. Besides the description of non-specific hyperintense signal alterations of the corticospinal tracts (CST), there are variable findings of enlargements of the central sulcus. Objectives: Several approaches have been made to investigate whether or not proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) may serve in detecting upper motor neuron degeneration in ALS. Even so, lowered concentrations of N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) in cortical motor regions as well as…