TABLE 4.

Comparison of spinal cord gray matter area means of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with different diagnostic certainty levels based on the revised El Escorial (rEE) criteria and healthy control subjects as reference, adjusted for age and sex. The ‘probable’ category refers to both probable and probable laboratory supported ALS based on the rEE criteria.

Inter‐vertebral disc level	ALS diagnosis acc. to rEE	Adjusted mean GM area/SE, mm2	Difference between means/SE	95% CI	95% CI	p
C2/C3	Possible	14.63/0.64	−1.12/0.69	−2.49	0.26	0.1108
	Probable	14.57/0.32	−1.17/0.41	−1.99	−0.34	0.0062
	Definite	12.52/0.64	−3.22/0.69	−4.60	−1.84	<0.0001
	Controls	15.74/0.26
C3/C4	Possible	17.69/0.96	−2.02/1.04	−4.10	0.05	0.0559
	Probable	17.11/0.49	−2.60/0.63	−3.86	−1.35	0.0001
	Definite	14.00/0.96	−5.71/1.04	−7.79	−3.64	<0.0001
	Controls	19.71/0.40
C4/C5	Possible	19.48/0.92	−1.07/0.99	−3.05	0.91	0.2853
	Probable	18.17/0.47	−2.38/0.60	−3.58	−1.18	0.0002
	Definite	16.29/1.01	−4.26/1.07	−6.41	−2.12	0.0002
	Controls	20.55/0.38
C5/C6	Possible	18.64/0.82	−1.32/0.89	−3.10	0.46	0.1432
	Probable	17.00/0.42	−2.96/0.54	−4.04	−1.88	<0.0001
	Definite	15.31/0.90	−4.66/0.96	−6.58	−2.73	<0.0001
	Controls	19.96/0.34
T max	Possible	20.25/1.38	−5.08/1.49	−8.06	−2.10	0.0012
	Probable	20.53/0.70	−4.80/0.89	−6.59	−3.01	<0.0001
	Definite	18.36/1.71	−6.98/1.80	−10.57	−3.38	0.0003
	Controls	25.33/0.58

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; rEE, revised El Escorial; SE, standard error.