Predictors of survival in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Introduction: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive, degenerative disorder of upper and lower motor neurons with a progressive bulbar or limbic muscular atrophy. The average survival in ALS patients lies between 3 to 5 years, but the survival in an individual ALS-patient is known to have a wide variety and is considered to be difficult to predict. Methods: We identified 479 patients in our ALS Database who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for probable or definite ALS according to the El Escorial criteria of the World Federation of Neurology and who have regularly been followed at our ALS-clinic i…