Table 1. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the discovery and replication samples.
| Discovery cases: ALS outcome | Discovery cases: Survival | Discovery controls | Replication cases: ALS outcome | Replication cases: Survival | Replication controls | ||
| n | 442 | 639 | 348 | 183 | 118 | 961 | |
| Male | 435 (98.4%) | 627 (98.1%) | 331 (95.1%) | 115 (62.8%) | 80 (67.8%) | 755 (78.6%) | |
| Age (yrs, mean ± SD) | 62.3±10.2 | 60.4±11.3 | 62.2±10.7 | 59.4±12.1 | 58.8±12.2 | 63.5±11.5 | |
| Veterans | 442 (100%) | 639 (100%) | 348 (100%) | 8 (4.4%) | 12 (10.2%) | 396 (41.2%) | |
| Diagnosis | Definite ALS | 115 (26.0%) | 200 (31.3%) | - | 183 (100%)* | 118 (100%)* | - |
| Probable ALS | 327 (74.0%) | 439 (68.7%) | - | - | |||
| Time from diagnosis to study consent | 0–12 months | 293 (66.3%) | 285 (44.6%) | - | 164 (89.6%) | 98 (83.1%) | - |
| 12–24 months | 149 (33.7%) | 141 (22.1%) | - | 19 (10.4%) | 16 (13.6%) | - | |
| 24–36 months | - | 65 (10.2%) | - | - | 1 (0.8%) | - | |
| >36 months | - | 148 (23.2%) | - | - | 3 (2.5%) | - | |
| Bulbar onset | 114 (25.8%) | 130 (20.3%) | - | not available | 35 (29.9%) | - | |
| Median onset to diagnosis (mo) | 11 | 11 | - | not available | 9.1 | - | |
| Median survival after diagnosis (mo) | 24.0 (n = 335) | 29.0 (n = 442) | - | 26.8 (n = 144) | 27.1 (n = 99) | - |
*Definite/probable ALS breakdown was not available for all replication cases.