Brain stem sonography as diagnostic tool in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Purpose: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a multisystemic neurodegenerative disease caused by progressive loss of motor neurons. Making the diagnosis of ALS can be difficult especially in the early stage of disease. Here we evaluated the use of transcranial brain stem sonography (TCS) to detect changes in mesencephalis echogenicity in ALS patients. Material and methods: In this cross-sectional study 94 patients with sporadic ALS and 46 age- and gender- matched healthy controls were studied with TCS according to a standardized protocol used in Parkinson's patients. The observed hyperechogenic changes in the mesen…