[Clinical picture and diagnosis of amyotrophic leukospongiosis].

Within a period of 24 years 17 patients suffering from a specific spinal amyotrophy were observed in Byelorussia. The disease steadily progressed and ended in death. Family and group morbidity, and less frequently sporadic cases were registered. Clinical examinations revealed a selective affection of the anterior horns resembling subacute anterior poliomyelitis. The truncal structures remained intact during the whole course of the disease. Two or three years after the disease onset spinal disturbances of respiration joined. The average duration of the disease was 2.5 to 3 years. Morphological examinations revealed total destruction of thoracic mononeurons and spongiosis of the white matter of the brain and the spinal cord, but without signs of demyelinization of the corticospinal tract. The specificity of the epidemiological, clinical, and pathomorphological features of the disease has given the authors grounds to designate it as "amyotrophic leukospongiosis".