Clinical disease stage related changes of serological factors in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Little is known whether disease clinical stage would influence the serological values in Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We aimed to explore the association between the levels of serological factors with clinical progression determined by the King's College staging system.

ALS Patients were registered from May 2008 to December 2016. The differences of serological values between patients and healthy controls, and the correlation of these serological values with disease stage were examined.

A total of 571 patients and 571 age-/gender-/BMI-matched healthy controls were included. The levels of creatinine, uric acid (UA), albumin, total protein, total cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) were significantly lower, and the low-density lipoprotein/HDL ratio was higher in ALS patients than those in healthy controls. The levels of UA, albumin, and total protein were significantly reversely correlated with diseases stages. The longitudinal observation of 81 ALS patients also showed that the levels of UA, creatinine, albumin, total protein, and HDL were significantly decreased in the second hematological examinations.

In the present study, ALS patients and control subjects were evenly matched with regard to sex, age, and BMI value, this finding could be considered as a metabolite signature in ALS. The changes of metabolite-based serological factors with progression of disease stage might be related to the pathophysiology of disease, and might have clinical utility in clinical practice.