Work

Autoimmune disease preceding amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To study whether the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is increased in people with prior autoimmune disease. METHODS: An all-England hospital record-linkage dataset spanning 1999-2011 was used. Cohorts were constructed of people with each of a range of autoimmune diseases; the incidence of ALS in each disease cohort was compared with the incidence of ALS in a cohort of individuals without prior admission for the autoimmune disease. RESULTS: There were significantly more cases than expected of ALS associated with a prior diagnosis of asthma, celiac disease, younger-onset diabetes (younger than 30 years), multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, myxedema, polymyositis, Sjögren syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, and ulcerative colitis. CONCLUSIONS: Autoimmune disease associations with ALS raise the possibility of shared genetic or environmental risk factors.

Source: Neurology

DOI: 10.1212/wnl.0b013e3182a6cc13

Authors: Martin R. Turner, Raph Goldacre, Sreeram Ramagopalan, Kevin Talbot, Michael J. Goldacre

Institutions: John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford

Language: English

Topic: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research

Subfield: Clinical Neurology

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: Motor Neurone Disease Association, Medical Research Council