Metabolism-related serological indicators and influencing factors in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at diagnosis / 西安交通大学学报(医学版)

ABSTRACT

Objective: To explore the characteristics and possible factors influencing metabolism-related serological factors in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at diagnosis so as to clarify metabolic abnormalities in ALS at an early stage. Methods: For this study we recruited 144 ALS patients who met the Awaji-Shima criteria and 144 age-, gender- and BMI-matched healthy controls. We compared the metabolism-related serological factors, such as low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C), uric acid and creatinine between ALS patients and the controls. The general linear model was used to analyze the influences of the onset region, disease progression rate, ALSFRS-R score and diagnosis delay time on the above serological indicators. Results: Compared with those in the controls, LDL-C increased significantly (2.55±0.77 mmol/L vs. 2.34±0.74 mmol/L, P=0.013), but HDL-C (1.17±0.31 mmol/L vs. 1.32±0.39 mmol/L, P<0.001), uric acid (288.60±82.61 μmol/L vs. 316.28±96.58 μmol/L, P=0.016) and creatinine all decreased significantly (52.21±12.29 μmol/L vs. 61.59±13.62 μmol/L, P<0.001). There was no significant difference in serological indicators between ALS patients with different disease progression rate, diagnosis delay time or ALSFRS-R score. Conclusion: ALS patients may have metabolic disorders in the early stage of the disease. The metabolic disorders in ALS should not be ignored and may become the target of future treatment.