Table 1.
Characteristics of ALS patients and controls
| Characteristics | ALS | Slow-ALS1 | Fast-ALS2 | HC3 | MD4 | SBMA5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N. | 106 | 60 | 46 | 36 | 28 | 32 |
| Age at sampling, median (range) | 67 (42–89) | 65 (42–81) | 70 (48–89) | 61 (24–78) | 53 (25–78) | 62 (46–83) |
| Sex (male/female) | 64/42 | 41/19 | 23/23 | 15/21 | 13/15 | 32/0 |
| Site of disease onset (bulbar/spinal) | 28/77 | 7/52 | 21/25 | – | – | – |
| ALSFRS-R at sampling, median (range) | 34 (2–47) | 37 (4–35) | 27 (2–41) | – | – | – |
| ΔALSFRS-R6, median (range) | 0.86 (0.05–9.0) | 0.54 (0.05–0.95) | 1.48 (0.97–9) | – | – | – |
| Disease duration7, median months (range) | 14 (3–179) | 15 (3–179) | 13 (3–46) | – | – | – |
|
Gene mutations (SOD1/C9orf72/TDP-43/FUS) |
10/106 (4/5/1/0) | 6/60 (3/2/1/0) | 4/46 (1/3/0/0) | – | – | – |
1Slow-ALS: ΔALSFRS-R < 0.96; 2Fast-ALS: ΔALSFRS-R > 0.96; 3HC Healthy control; 4MD muscular dystrophy; 5SBMA spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy; 6ΔALSFRS-R: 48– ALSFRS-R score at the plasma collection/time between symptom onset and sampling; 7Disease duration: from symptom onset to plasma collection