Higher incidence of cervical spinal cord compression in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a single-institute cohort...

Although the relationship between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) is important, data relating to CSM complications in ALS remain lacking.

We aimed to investigate and validate the spinal cord conditions of ALS patients.

We recruited all patients diagnosed with ALS, Parkinson's disease (PD), or chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) who were admitted to our department from April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2020. We analyzed the cervical or thoracolumbar magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of these 128 patients. Data relating to spondylosis, cord compression, spinal canal diameter, spinal cord diameter, and the closest distance between the cervical spinal canal and cord were validated using MRI.

Of the 128 patients, 52 had ALS, 48 had PD, and 28 had CIDP. The proportions of both cervical spondylosis and cervical cord compression were highest in the ALS group compared with the other patient groups (p < 0.05). The proportion of cervical spondylosis in ALS patients reached 38.3%, and that of cervical cord compression reached 53.2%. The closest distance between the cervical spinal canal and cord was also significantly smaller in ALS patients compared with CIDP patients (p < 0.05). In contrast to the cervical cord findings, there were no significant differences in the thoracolumbar cord between ALS patients and the other patient groups.

Of the three disease groups, the proportion of CSM was highest in ALS patients. Furthermore, cervical cord conditions were significantly more crowded in the ALS patients than in the other patient groups.