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Motor Neuron Disease: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

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Neuroscience in the 21st Century

Abstract

In this chapter, we will review the epidemiology, clinical phenotype, genetics, causes, and management of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS is a devastating and invariably fatal adult-onset neurodegenerative disorder. It remains incurable, killing about 1,200 people in the UK each year. It has an annual incidence of 1–2 per 100,000, a figure that appears to be consistent in most populations studied around the world. ALS is also known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease” in the USA and motor neuron disease (MND) in the UK.

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Further Reading

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Correspondence to P. Nigel Leigh .

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© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Leigh, P.N., Sreedharan, J., Wijesekera, L. (2013). Motor Neuron Disease: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. In: Pfaff, D.W. (eds) Neuroscience in the 21st Century. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1997-6_111

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