Department of Neurology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, 44307 Kaunas, Lithuania.
Medicina (Kaunas). 2023 Sep 29;59(10):1745. doi: 10.3390/medicina59101745.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects both the upper and lower motor neurons in the nervous system, causing muscle weakness and severe disability. The progressive course of the disease reduces the functional capacity of the affected patients, limits daily activities, and leads to complete dependence on caregivers, ultimately resulting in a fatal outcome. Respiratory dysfunction mostly occurs later in the disease and is associated with a worse prognosis. Forty-six participants were included in our study, with 23 patients in the ALS group and 23 individuals in the control group. The ultrasound examination of the phrenic nerve (PN) was performed by two authors using a high-resolution "Philips EPIQ 7" ultrasound machine with a linear 4-18 MHz transducer. Our study revealed that the phrenic nerve is significantly smaller on both sides in ALS patients compared to the control group ( < 0.001). Only one significant study on PN ultrasound in ALS, conducted in Japan, also showed significant results ( < 0.00001). These small studies are particularly promising, as they suggest that ultrasound findings could serve as an additional diagnostic tool for ALS.
肌萎缩侧索硬化症（ALS）是一种进行性神经退行性疾病，影响神经系统中的上下运动神经元，导致肌肉无力和严重残疾。疾病的进行性发展降低了受影响患者的功能能力，限制了日常活动，并导致完全依赖护理人员，最终导致致命结局。呼吸功能障碍大多在疾病后期发生，并与预后较差相关。我们的研究纳入了 46 名参与者，其中 23 名患者为 ALS 组，23 名个体为对照组。两名作者使用高分辨率“Philips EPIQ 7”超声机和线性 4-18 MHz 换能器对膈神经（PN）进行了超声检查。我们的研究表明，与对照组相比，ALS 患者的双侧膈神经明显更小（<0.001）。唯一一项在日本进行的关于 ALS 中 PN 超声的重要研究也显示出显著结果（<0.00001）。这些小型研究特别有希望，因为它们表明超声结果可能成为 ALS 的附加诊断工具。
