Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ALS is a fatal, rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease that mainly affects the motor system. A number of potentially neuroprotective and neurorestorative disease-modifying drugs are currently in clinical development. However, these endpoints are general, variable and late-stage measures of the ALS disease process and thus require the long-term assessment of large cohorts.
Hence, there is a need for more sensitive radiological biomarkers. Various sequences for magnetic resonance imaging MRI of the brain and spinal cord have may have value as surrogate biomarkers for use in future clinical trials. Here, we review the MRI findings in ALS, their clinical correlations, and their limitations and potential role as biomarkers.
We included general MRI studies with a control group and an ALS group and longitudinal studies even if a control group was lacking.
A total of studies were analysed with MRI data and clinical correlations. The most disease-sensitive MRI patterns are in motor regions but the brain is more broadly affected. Keywords: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Magnetic resonance imaging, Morphometry, Diffusion tensor imaging, Magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Spinal cord, Biomarkers.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that mainly affects the motor system. At present, the only drug to have produced an increase in patient survival in a controlled clinical trial is riluzole [ 1 ]. The condition is always fatal; the median survival time after onset is 36 [ 2 ], although there are great individual variations [ 3 ]. Although ALS is a clinically recognizable condition in terms of the pattern of progressive upper and lower motor neuron degeneration , the clinical presentation and progression are heterogeneous [ 4 ].
