Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Essay -- ALS Medical Medicine Essays

Amyotrophic Lateral SclerosisABSTRACT At this time, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis(ALS) is a very confusing and elusive disorder. While the clinical presentation and diagnosis of ALS dates back to the early 1900s, with Charcot being the premier to scientifically report and document his findings, there simply has not been determinate evidence since that time for the etiology for ALS. This fundamental problem has befuddled the virtually qualified researchers and its ensuing answer has eluded the most clever experiments for some 80 years. This paper is being written to address some of the most slick candidate causes which assume come to the forefront of ALS research in the last few years. This paper will also try to tackle the formidable task of possibly uniting some of the findings and results of experiments from all everywhere the world in the last 4 years. While an exact, definitive etiology, treatment, or answer is not possible at this time, there does seem to be a few underly ing trends and findings that have reinforced their own importance. These are the findings that will be evaluated and will hopefully act as a genesis for, perhaps a premature, minimally complete conclusion of the usable pool of knowledge that has been amassed on ALS. In addition to this, possible treatment, including pharmacological intervention, will be reviewed. INTRODUCTION ALS is a disease of the osteal muscular motor neurons throughout the nervous system that usually affects twain speed and discredit motor neurons. The progressive wasting and weakness of muscles that have lost their nerve supply is a characteristic sign of lower motor neuron damage signs of spasticity and exaggerated reflexes are indications of damage to the upper motor neur... ...0. Rowland. Babinski and the diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Neurological Institute. 1993. Vol. 33, 1. 11. Hubert and Blanchard. Pertussis toxin Pretreatment abolishes the inhibitory meat of Riluzole and carbachol o n D-(3H)aspartate release from cultured cerebellar Granule cells. Neuroscience Letters, 1992. Vol. 140, pp. 251--254. 12. Cheramy, Barbeito, Godeheu and Glowinski. Riluzole inhibits the release of Glutamate in the taillike nucleus of the cat in vivo. Neuroscience Letters, 1992. Vol. 147, pp. 209--212. 13. Benoit and Escande. Riluzole specifically blocks in-activated Na channels in myelinated nerve fibre. European Journal of Physiology, 1991. Vol. 419, pp. 603-609. 14.Drachman and Kuncl. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis An un-conventional autoimmune disease? Annals of Neurology, 1989. Vol. 26, pp. 269-274.(Outdated, but useful)