TABLE 3.

Comparison of spinal cord gray matter area means of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and a bulbar, cervical, or lumbar disease onset and healthy control subjects as reference, adjusted for age and sex.

Inter‐vertebral disc level	Group	Adjusted mean GM area/SE, mm2	Difference between means/SE	95% CI	95% CI	p
C2/C3	Bulbar onset	14.98/0.70	−0.76/0.76	−2.27	0.76	0.3236
	Cervical onset	14.10/0.45	−1.64/0.52	−2.67	−0.60	0.0024
	Lumbar onset a	14.06/0.43	−1.68/0.51	−2.69	−0.67	0.0015
	Controls	15.74/0.28
C3/C4	Bulbar onset	18.44/1.18	−1.25/1.27	−3.78	1.28	0.3280
	Cervical onset	15.99/0.67	−3.70/0.78	−5.24	−2.15	<0.0001
	Lumbar onset a	16.69/0.64	−3.00/0.76	−4.52	−1.49	0.0002
	Controls	19.69/0.42
C4/C5	Bulbar onset	19.67/1.10	−0.85/1.18	−3.22	1.51	0.4727
	Cervical onset	17.64/0.65	−2.89/0.74	−4.37	−1.40	0.0002
	Lumbar onset a	18.00/0.60	−2.52/0.71	−3.94	−1.11	0.0007
	Controls	20.53/0.40
C5/C6	Bulbar onset	18.39/1.01	−1.56/1.08	−3.71	0.59	0.1522
	Cervical onset	17.00/0.59	−2.94/0.68	−4.30	−1.59	<0.0001
	Lumbar onset a	16.59/0.54	−3.36/0.64	−4.65	−2.07	<0.0001
	Controls	19.95/0.35
T max	Bulbar onset	20.49/1.44	−4.85/1.56	−7.96	−1.73	0.0028
	Cervical onset	21.21/0.94	−4.13/1.08	−6.28	−1.97	0.0003
	Lumbar onset a	19.17/0.90	−6.17/1.06	−8.29	−4.05	<0.0001
	Controls	25.34/0.58

Note: p values with a significance level of <0.005 (after Bonferroni correction) are marked bold.

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval of the difference between means; GM, gray matter; SE, standard error.

^a One patient with thoracic onset was classified as lumbar onset since this was the second involved region.