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ALS: Full Form, Signs, and Common Symptoms

By Anushree Goswami Last updated : December 9, 2023

ALS: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

ALS is an abbreviation of "Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis". It is a neurodegenerative disease that has an effect on motor nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It is a particular disease that is the source of the demise of neurons which determines the supervision of voluntary muscles.

ALS is a disease that develops gradually, as it gets of inferior quality over time and becomes the source of the demise of motor nerve cells (neurons) that direct and manage the voluntary muscles. In the long run, the motor nerve cells can no longer send impulses/signals to muscles and muscles commence to waste away or reduce in size (atrophy). It influences the capability of the brain to instigate and manage muscle movement and the individual may not speak, eat, move, and breathe appropriately.

More about ALS

• ALS is also known as motor neuron disease (MND).
• In 1869, ALS was discovered by a French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot.
• ALS is also called Lou Gehrig's disease, after the well-known baseball player who was identified with this medical state.
• ALS can be of two types:
  
  • Sporadic
  • Familial
• Sporadic is the most ordinary type of ALS in the U.S.
• Familial is a hereditary disease as that passes from one generation to the next generation.

ALS Signs and Common Symptoms

• The disorder becomes the source of muscle weakness, atrophy, and muscle spasms right through the body due to the deterioration of the upper motor and lower motor neurons.
• Individuals influenced by the disorder may in due course be unable to find the ability to instigate and direct all voluntary movement, even if bladder and bowel function and the extraocular muscles are generally out of danger until the ending phase of the disease.
• Cognitive or behavioral dysfunction is present in 30–50% of individuals with ALS. Approximately half of people with ALS will experience gentle changes in cognition and behavior, and 10–15% will display symptoms of frontotemporal dementia.
• Reiterating phrases or gesticulation, lethargy, and loss of inhibition are normally accounted behavioral features of ALS.
• Language dysfunction, executive dysfunction, and difficulties with social cognition and verbal memory are the most generally accounted cognitive symptoms in ALS.
• Pain is a symptom experienced by the majority of people with ALS and can acquire the form of neuropathic pain which comprises contractures, neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain, and pressure ulcers.