Mulder D W, Howard F M
Mayo Clin Proc. 1976 Sep;51(9):537-41.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is usually considered a disease that will have a fatal termination in 1 to 3 years. A prospective study of 100 patients with this disorder revealed that 20 of them were living 5 years after the onset of their disorder. Review of other published series reveals that patients have been reported who lived for longer than 5 years and have then usually been reported as atypical cases, although the only way in which they are described as atypical is the duration of the disease. It is our assumption, based on these data as well as on additional clinical observations, that many patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis live for longer than 5 years and, rarely, they may have remissions of their illness. The possible significance of these observations is discussed.
肌萎缩侧索硬化症通常被认为是一种会在1至3年内导致致命结局的疾病。一项对100例患有这种疾病的患者进行的前瞻性研究显示，其中20例在疾病发作后存活了5年。对其他已发表系列研究的回顾发现，有患者被报道存活时间超过5年，这些患者通常被视为非典型病例，尽管将他们描述为非典型的唯一依据是疾病持续时间。基于这些数据以及其他临床观察结果，我们推测，许多肌萎缩侧索硬化症患者存活时间超过5年，而且极少数患者的病情可能会缓解。本文讨论了这些观察结果可能具有的意义。
