Das Kamalesh, Nag Chiranjib, Ghosh Mrinalkanti
Department of Neurology, Burdwan Medical College and Hospital,Burdwan, West Bengal, India.
N Am J Med Sci. 2012 Aug;4(8):350-5. doi: 10.4103/1947-2714.99517.
Definite etiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is still a matter of debate.
The study was designed to evaluate the role of environmental, occupational, and familial risk factors in development of ALS.
This was a case control study of 110 cases of definite ALS with 240 age and sex matched controls. Investigations were done on the following aspects- family history, occupation, living place, source of drinking water, exposure to industrial, chemical, agricultural toxins and heavy metals, physical and electrical injury, working under magnetic field for more than 10 years in both the groups. Clinical examinations, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging studies were done in every patient. Chi square test, logistic regression analysis, and calculation of odds ratio were used to analyze the data.
Rural livings (odds ratio = 1.99), smoking (odds ratio = 1.88), insecticides, and pesticides exposures (odds ratio = 1.61), electrical injury (odds ratio = 6.2) were detected as the associated factors in development amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The study expressed the need of extensive research globally in molecular and genetic levels to detect the associated factors in etiopathogenesis of ALS for better understanding the etiology and for remedial aspects.
肌萎缩侧索硬化症（ALS）的确切病因仍存在争议。
本研究旨在评估环境、职业和家族风险因素在ALS发病中的作用。
这是一项病例对照研究，纳入110例确诊的ALS患者，并与240名年龄和性别匹配的对照进行比较。对两组患者在以下方面进行调查——家族史、职业、居住地点、饮用水来源、接触工业、化学、农业毒素和重金属情况、身体和电损伤情况、在磁场下工作超过10年的情况。对每位患者进行临床检查、电生理检查和神经影像学检查。采用卡方检验、逻辑回归分析和比值比计算来分析数据。
农村生活（比值比 = 1.99）、吸烟（比值比 = 1.88）、接触杀虫剂和农药（比值比 = 1.61）、电损伤（比值比 = 6.2）被检测为肌萎缩侧索硬化症发病的相关因素。
该研究表明，全球需要在分子和基因水平上进行广泛研究，以检测ALS发病机制中的相关因素，从而更好地理解病因并采取补救措施。
