What is the period of ALS when muscle atrophy occurs?

ALS is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is mainly manifested by gradual muscle atrophy. Guidance: First manifested as muscle atrophy of the limbs.

ALS is a group of motor neuron diseases whose causes and mechanisms are unknown, and most of them have a familial genetic background. There is no specific method, the main type is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is characterized by gradual muscle atrophy and muscle weakness, the body is like gradually freezing and losing the ability to live autonomously, but the person is always awake, from the discovery of symptoms to atrophy and death is about 2-6 years, and finally because of the gradual decline of speech, breathing, and swallowing functions, until death from respiratory failure.

ALS can be divided into three stages.

ALS, also known as motor neuron disease, is mainly a chronic progressive neurodegenerative disease, because it mainly affects the motor system of the whole body, such as motor cells and motor conduction tracts, so patients mainly have motor involvement, manifested as muscle weakness and muscle atrophy. Usually it starts in one limb, starting from the hand, showing weakness and muscle atrophy in one hand, and then gradually progressing up to the upper arm, and then gradually affecting the lower limbs, so the patient gradually loses the ability to exercise.

1. Early manifestation, the early symptoms of ALS are not very obvious, patients usually only feel weakness in the body, easy fatigue, slurred speech, shoulder soreness, and slight numbness of body parts.

2. Medium-term performance: In the middle stage of ALS, the muscles of patients with ALS begin to gradually atrophy, which is manifested as difficulty in movement, strange facial expressions, and speech disorders, which eventually lead to muscle emaciation and atrophy of the whole body.

3. In the late stage, after muscle atrophy, the patient completely loses his speech ability and mobility, resulting in paralysis of the whole body, difficulty breathing, and finally respiratory paralysis and suffocation.

MND progresses over time and can be divided into five stages:

1. Initial stage of symptoms:

In the early stages of MND, patients may experience a sudden inability to hold chopsticks in their hands, a slight sense of weakness, and occasional falls while walking for no apparent reason.

Second, the difficult period of work:

With the development of the disease, patients will have obvious weakness of hands and feet, and even muscle atrophy, although they can still take care of themselves in daily life, but it has affected their normal work, and the disease needs to rest more when it reaches this stage to avoid the acceleration of the disease.

3. Difficult period of life:

At this stage, the motor neuron enters the middle stage, and the hands or feet, or the hands and feet have serious impairments at the same time, and they are no longer able to take care of themselves, such as being unable to walk, dress, hold dishes and chopsticks on their own, etc., and there will be some obstacles in speech expression; In terms of diet, patients should eat as many meals as possible and eat as many liquid foods as possible. Foods should be high in protein and rich in vitamins.

Fourth, the middle and late stages of the disease:

At this time, the condition is already very serious, and the patient manifests as atrophy and atrophy of the hands or feet, or the muscles of the hands and feet at the same time, and the atrophy and weakness are more serious, and the life is no longer able to take care of himself, such as unable to walk, dress, hold dishes and chopsticks on his own, etc. Affected by the disease, patients may also experience atrophy of tongue muscles, and speech can no longer be clearly expressed.

If the patient chokes, the patient may have to eat these by nasogastric feeding. If the condition is severe, in order for the patient to obtain nutrition, it is necessary to obtain it by means of a gastrostomy. During this time, it is important to prevent the patient from developing aspiration pneumonia.

5. Dyspnea period:

Generally, before the dyspnea period, it is necessary to be equipped with a ventilator, which has invasive ventilators and non-invasive ventilators, non-invasive ventilators can be used at home, and if the patient has a lot of respiratory secretions, invasive ventilators are required. Tracheostomy is an option for admission to a regional respiratory center** or home care, and regular pats on the patient's back from the bottom up to make it easier for respiratory secretions to be discharged.

The early symptoms of ALS are mainly determined by their clinical classification. It can be divided into four types: 1. Progressive spinal muscular atrophy

The early symptoms are mainly symmetrical bilateral and thenar muscle atrophy and weakness. 2. Progressive bulbar palsy: its early symptoms mainly include unarticulation, hoarseness, heavy nasal voice, choking on drinking water, difficulty swallowing, salivation, tongue muscle atrophy and fasciculations.

3. Primary lateral sclerosis: its early symptoms are mainly weakness of both lower limbs, increased muscle tone, and spasmodic or scissor-like gait when walking. 4. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis:

This type is the most common, and the early symptoms are clumsy and inflexible finger movements, inaccurate fine movements, and weakness.

This is a progressive myotonic syndrome. It is a disease of the immune system. It is not clear why, but some** can alleviate the course of the disease and require a specific patient to be prescribed.

ALS is a group of motor neuron diseases that take about 2-6 years from the discovery of symptoms to atrophy and death, and finally gradually decline due to speech, breathing, and swallowing functions until death due to respiratory failure.

ALS is the biggest feature of motor neuron disease is muscle atrophy and muscle weakness, most patients have an onset age of 40-50 years old, and the natural history may be 5-10 years, and some people have a longer time, so most neurons have muscle atrophy very early when they start the disease. For example, the thenar muscle, which is the muscle that supports the palm, or the muscles of the upper limbs are atrophied, or the muscles of the lower limbs are atrophied, and even the tongue muscles become smaller and smaller, and the tongue muscles are constantly trembling, these patients need to be screened for diseases.

Therefore, muscle atrophy appears relatively early, and some people have very severe muscle atrophy in half a year to a few months. If young and middle-aged people have muscle atrophy, especially the upper limbs and palm muscles, or the glossopharyngeal muscles and tongue muscles, tongue shrinkage and tremor, they must go to the neurology department for screening. The incidence of ALS is not very high, and not all muscle wasting is dangerous.

ALS includes support and medications.

1. Support: Symptomatic and appropriate exercise. Pay attention to the function and patency of the respiratory and digestive tracts, and if there is an increase in oral secretions, antihistamine drugs can be used; Nebulized inhalation drugs can be used if there is a lot of phlegm, and if there is a shortness of breath, resulting in dyspnea and hypoxemia, a ventilator can be used to assist breathing.

In addition, the patient should be turned over more often to avoid bedsores.

2. Drugs**: For ALS, you can use drugs such as riluzole tablets**, and you can also try to use neurotrophic factors, antioxidants, free radical scavengers, and pro-metabolic drugs to improve symptoms, such as vitamin E, vitamin C, coenzyme Q10, edaravone, idebenone, etc.

ALS is a disease that cannot be improved, but it can be used to improve the quality of life of patients and delay the progression of the disease through support and drugs. For patients with ALS, early diagnosis and early ** are required.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is characterized by progressively worsening skeletal muscle weakness, muscle atrophy, fasciculation, bulbar palsy, and pyramidal tract signs.

What are the typical symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?

Muscle weakness and muscle atrophy.

The common first symptom of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is clumsiness and weakness of one or both fingers, followed by atrophy of small muscles of the hand (such as thenar and minor thenar muscles, interosseous muscles, etc.), and in severe cases, the patient's hands may be eagle claw-shaped.

As the disease progresses, muscle weakness and atrophy can affect the forearm, upper arm, and shoulder girdle muscles, then the trunk and neck, and finally the facial muscles and throat muscles.

In a small number of patients, muscle atrophy and weakness begin in the muscles of the lower extremities or trunk.

Fasciculations. The muscles of the affected area of the patient often have obvious fasciculations, which are commonly known as "meat beats" and "muscle beats".

Bulbar palsy. It usually occurs in the late stages of the disease, but in a few cases it may be the first symptom.

The tongue muscles are often affected first and present with tongue atrophy, fasciculations, and weakness of tongue protrusion. Subsequently, the palatal, pharynx, larynx, and masticatory muscles atrophy and weakness occur, resulting in slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, choking on water, and weakness in chewing.

Pyramidal tract sign. When the muscles of both upper limbs are affected, muscle atrophy may occur, muscle tone is generally not high, but tendon reflexes are hyperactive, and Hoffmann's sign is positive; In contrast, when the muscles of both lower extremities are involved, muscle atrophy and fasciculations tend to be mild, muscle tone is high, tendon reflexes are hyperactive, and Babinski's sign is positive.

Muscle wasting is one of the clinical manifestations of ALS, and not all muscle wasting is ALS.

First of all, ALS is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis syndrome, mainly after the damage of upper motor neuron and lower motor neurons, resulting in gradual weakness and atrophy of the ball, limbs, trunk, chest and abdominal muscles, ALS is a gradual aggravation process, and even the muscles of the whole body gradually atrophy, and finally cause difficulty swallowing, dyspnea, and eventually death.

There are many other causes of muscle atrophy, such as disuse atrophy, so muscle atrophy cannot be said to be ALS, but ALS will definitely cause muscle atrophy.