Table 1.
Demographic and clinical characteristics of the study subjects.
| Healthy controls (n = 51) |
ALS patients (n = 52) |
P value* | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age (years) | 52.8 ± 9.1 | 54.3 ± 10.7 | 0.434 |
| Sex (female/male) | 14/37 | 20/32 | 0.235 |
| Education (years) | 8.4 ± 3.1 | 7.6 ± 4.2 | 0.280 |
| Site of onset (bulbar/limb) | – | 9/43 | – |
| Disease distribution clinically (bulbar and limb involvement/limb involvement only) | – | 23/29 | – |
| Diagnostic category (definite/probable/possible) | – | 10/20/22 | – |
| ALSFRS-R score | – | 41.0 ± 6.0 | – |
| Disease duration (months) | – | 15.5 ± 14.5 | – |
| Progression rate | – | 0.58 ± 0.56 | – |
ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; ALSFRS-R, revised ALS Functional Rating Scale. The rate of disease progression was calculated using the equation: (48 - ALSFRS-R)/Disease duration. “-” denotes no data available. * indicates that the continuous and categorical variables were compared using a two-sample t test and chi-square test, respectively.