>JC> From: j…@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin)

>JC> s…@ais.org (Stephen Landman) wrote:
>JC> > igerr…@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes:
>JC> >> Could anyone out ther give me some information on Lou Gherig’s [sic]
>JC> >> disease?
>JC> > It is fatal, with death coming 2 to 5 years after diagnosis.
>JC>
>JC> Isn’t this what Stephen Hawking’s got?  He’s lasted quite a
>JC> lot longer
>JC> than that.
>It is indeed what Stephen Hawking’s has and he has defied the odds by remining
>alive for some considerable time.  Some have said that the supreme being is

Lou Gherig’s disease or ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) is basically a
clinical diagnosis, and thus probably a spectrum of neuromuscular disease
entities.  There have been documented cases of survival > 7 yrs, at which
point other labels are put on the disease, a favorite being atypical
ALS (!-).  Then there are other related diseases that look like ALS,
such as spinal muscular atrophy, PLS, etc.

Edison Wong
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Inquiring minds want to know:  just how did he do that???

>  If he does have it, how rare is his survival ? Is there variation in the
>tendency or rate at which vital organs are affected that would explain his
>long survival ?

Motor neuron disease is extremely variable.  While the average patient
is dead at 5 years, many are extremely slowly progressive and the
patients go on for many years.  The slow varient is not at all uncommon.
The diagnosis of Alzheimer’s can be made pre-mortem by brain biopsy.
However, brain biopsy is not a procedure that most doctors or patients
like to use.  Motor neuron disease is much easier to diagnose and
can probably be done with about 90% certainty or better by clinical
picture coupled with electrophysiologic evidence (and sometimes
muscle/nerve biopsy).  

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -

>JC> From: j…@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin)

>JC> s…@ais.org (Stephen Landman) wrote:
>JC> > igerr…@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes:
>JC> >> Could anyone out ther give me some information on Lou Gherig’s [sic]
>JC> >> disease?
>JC> > It is fatal, with death coming 2 to 5 years after diagnosis.
>JC>
>JC> Isn’t this what Stephen Hawking’s got?  He’s lasted quite a
~r>JC> lot longer
>JC> than that.

>It is indeed what Stephen Hawking’s has and he has defied the odds by remining
>alive for some considerable time.  Some have said that the supreme being is
>making him suffer for all those nasty things he’s said about Him not existing.  
>I, like the good Professor himself don’t belive in Him, he’s just lucky I
>guess.

  Is it possible to make a *definitive* diagnosis of ALS prior to post-mortem
(unlike Alzheimers) ? If not, could he have some other rare but similar disease
that essentially mimics ALS but doesn’t have the same (rate of) progression ?

  If he does have it, how rare is his survival ? Is there variation in the
tendency or rate at which vital organs are affected that would explain his
long survival ?