ConceptQ206901· pop 78· linked from 2,760 articles

ALS

Also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, motor neuron disease, bulbar, Lou Gehrig disease, Charcot disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, motor neurone disease, MND

AI overview

ALS (also called Lou Gehrig's disease) is a rare and serious disease where nerve cells controlling voluntary muscles gradually die, causing progressive weakness and wasting of muscles throughout the body. Over time, people with ALS lose the ability to move, speak, eat, and breathe on their own, making it a terminal condition with no cure.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

In the Vinony graph

Within Vinony's link graph, ALS is referenced by 2,760 other articles, and connects out to TARDBP, magnetic resonance imaging and dyspnea.

It is catalogued under topics including Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Cytoskeletal defects and Diseases named after patients.

Its subject is documented across 76 Wikipedia language editions.

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Key facts

Medical condition.name: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Medical condition.image: ALS Affected neurons and muscles.png
Medical condition.caption: Parts of the nervous system affected by ALS, causing progressive symptoms in skeletal muscles throughout the body
Medical condition.field: Neurology
Medical condition.symptoms: Early: Stiff muscles, muscle twitches, gradual increasing weakness Late: Difficulty in speaking, swallowing, and breathing; respiratory failure; Rare: frontotemporal dementia
Medical condition.complications: Falling; Respiratory failure; Pneumonia; Malnutrition
Medical condition.onset: 45–75 years
Medical condition.causes: Unknown (90% to 95%) or genetic (5% to 10%)
Medical condition.risks: Genetic risk factors, age, male sex, heavy metals, organic chemicals, smoking, electric shock, head injury
Medical condition.diagnosis: Clinical diagnosis of exclusion based on progressive symptoms of upper and lower motor neuron degeneration for which no other explanation can be found. Supportive evidence from electromyography, genetic testing, and neuroimaging
Medical condition.differential: Multifocal motor neuropathy, Kennedy's disease, hereditary spastic paraplegia, nerve compression syndrome, diabetic neuropathy, post-polio syndrome, myasthenia gravis, multiple sclerosis
Medical condition.treatment: Walker, wheelchair, non-invasive ventilation, feeding tube, augmentative and alternative communication, symptomatic management
Medical condition.medication: Riluzole, edaravone, tofersen, dextromethorphan/quinidine
Medical condition.prognosis: Life expectancy is highly variable, but typically 2–4 years after diagnosis
Medical condition.alt: Diagram of a human nervous system highlighting the brain, spinal cord, motor neurons, and muscles of the body affected by ALS

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

72,010 papers

[Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) - diagnosis, course of disease and treatment options].ReviewDeutsche medizinische Wochenschrift (1946) · 2021Meyer TDOI: 10.1055/a-1562-7882
The epidemiology of ALS: a conspiracy of genes, environment and time.ReviewNature reviews. Neurology · 2013Al-Chalabi A, Hardiman ODOI: 10.1038/nrneurol.2013.203
Pathophysiology and Diagnosis of ALS: Insights from Advances in Neurophysiological Techniques.ReviewInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2019van den Bos MAJ, Geevasinga N, Higashihara M et al.DOI: 10.3390/ijms20112818
Genetics of ALS - genes and modifier.ReviewCurrent opinion in neurology · 2025Menge S, Decker L, Freischmidt ADOI: 10.1097/WCO.0000000000001416
ALS.ReviewNeurology · 1996Jerusalem F, Pohl C, Karitzky J et al.DOI: 10.1212/wnl.47.6_suppl_4.218s
ALS molecular subtypes are a combination of cellular and pathological features learned by deep multiomics classifiers.Cell reports · 2025O'Neill K, Shaw R, Bolger I et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115402
Studying ALS: Current Approaches, Effect on Potential Treatment Strategy.ReviewAdvances in experimental medicine and biology · 2020Ustyantseva EI, Medvedev SP, Zakian SMDOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-41283-8_11
Access for ALL in ALS: A large-scale, inclusive, collaborative consortium to unlock the molecular and genetic mechanisms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.ReviewMuscle & nerve · 2024Berry JD, Paganoni S, Harms MB et al.DOI: 10.1002/mus.28244

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Instance of: symptom or sign
Subclass of: disease
Named after: Jean-Martin Charcot
Image: ALS Coronal.jpg

Show 14 more facts

NCI Thesaurus ID: C34373
Commons category: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
ICPC 2 ID: N99
drug or therapy used for treatment: edaravone
genetic association: OPTN
exact match: www.orpha.net/ORDO/Orphanet_803
topic's main category: Category:Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
health specialty: neurology
nickname: Lou Gehrig's disease
ICD-9-CM: 335.20
external data available at URL: www.nanbyou.or.jp/entry/52
on focus list of Wikimedia project: WikiProject Medicine
afflicts: motor neuron
short name: ALS

Sources (14)

via Wikidata · CC0

~56 min read

Encyclopedic overview

37 sections

Contents

Classification
Subtypes of disease
Regionally isolated variants
Age of onset
Signs and symptoms
Initial symptoms
Progression
Late-stage disease management
Prognosis, staging, and survival
Cognitive, emotional, and behavioral symptoms
Cause
Genetics and genetic testing
Environmental and other factors
Viruses and retrotransposons
Autoimmune processes
Pathophysiology
Neuropathology
Biochemistry
Diagnosis
Differential diagnosis
Management
Medications
Disease-slowing treatments
Symptomatic treatments
Breathing support
Non-invasive ventilation
Invasive ventilation
Therapy
Nutrition
End-of-life care
Epidemiology
History
Diagnostic criteria
Name
Society and culture
References
External links

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or '''Lou Gehrig's disease''', is a rare terminal neurodegenerative disease defined by the progressive loss of both upper and lower motor neurons that normally control voluntary muscle contraction. ALS is the most common of the motor neuron diseases. ALS often presents in its early stages with gradual muscle stiffness, twitches, weakness, and wasting. Motor neuron loss typically continues until the ability to eat, speak, move, and breathe without mechanical support is lost. It is estimated that at least 50% of people with ALS experience significant changes in thinking and behavior, with 15% of individuals going on to develop frontotemporal dementia. An ALS diagnosis is made based on a person's signs and symptoms, with additional testing conducted to rule out other potential causes. Depending on which areas of the body are affected first, ALS may be classified as limb-onset (beginning with weakness in the arms or legs) or bulbar-onset (beginning with difficulty in speaking or swallowing). Respiratory onset occurs in approximately 1%–3% of cases.

Most cases of ALS (about 90–95%) have no known cause and are known as sporadic ALS. genetic, autoimmune, and environmental factors are believed to be involved in the onset of ALS. Approximately 5–10% of ALS cases have a known genetic cause and often linked to a family history of ALS; such cases are known as familial ALS or hereditary ALS. Four disease-linked genes are responsible for approximately half of all genetic cases.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “ALS” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.