[Rapid course amyotrophic lateral sclerosis].

The case of a 58-year-old woman is reported, whose illness began with a pain in the left shoulder. Later a spastic palsy developed in the hands, and a flaccid one in the arms and lower limbs. After a treatment for 12 months she died from respiratory failure. The motor nerve cells in the spinal cord, brainstem and cerebral cortex together with the pyramidal tracts had degenerated symmetrically.