Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

INTRODUCTION
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a specific disorder that involves the death of neurons, it most common in motor neuron and it affects nerve cell in the brain and the spinal cord. It results in the death of the neuron that control voluntary muscle; it is also called Lou Gehrig’s. It is the most common degenerative disorder in humans, in which the person have loss both lower motor neuron and higher motor neuron. Its pathogenesis is complex and multifactorial and involves the genomics of normal aging and unknown environmental factors (S.Cotran, 1994).

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a progressive neurological disease that causes dysfunction of the nerve that control muscle movement. The upper motor neuron is found in motor …show more content…
Its basic Structure includes a receptor on one end and a transmitter on the other end, connected by axon. Neurons are almost everywhere in the body. The function of motor neuron is to carry electrical signals to a muscle, triggering it to either contract or relax. The movement of internal skeletal structure is enabled by coordinating the contractions of the many muscles attached to it. Only the brain is capable of this complex coordination and signals are delivered by neurons to the muscle; motor neuron is the one that carries signals away from the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) to the muscle or gland. Motor neuron controls the muscle that allows the body to move body parts. When motor neuron dies, the ability of the brain to control muscle movement is lost, it then makes hard to eat, swallowing, speaking and breathing. (WiseGEEK, …show more content…
Mortality rates of ALS in the 1990’s in United States population was estimated to be 1.54 per 100 000 per year, then it range from 1.54 to 2.55 per 100 000 in 2001. In the 1990’s in Europe and North America the incidence of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis was between 1.5 and 2.7 per 100,000 population per year. In Western countries the point of frequency ranges from 2.7 to 7.4 per 100,000 in the 1990’s. The lifetime risk of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis by the age 70 has been estimated to be 1 in 400. It has been found that males are affected by this disease more than females; and the ratio of females is to males has been estimated to be 5:1. Females have possible protective hormonal factors, increased in probability of males being exposed to putative risk factors and under ascertainment of old females in population register. The mean age of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis varies between 55-65 years, only 5% of all cases the disease have started before 30 years. This disease may start with bulbar and that is common in old age females; 43% of females show the symptoms of bulbar over 70 years and 15% below the age of 30. (Anon,

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