Prognosis and clinical varieties of ALS disease

210 cases of ALS disease in the period 1955-1979 are considered. Different parameters such as sex, age, duration and clinical course have been correlated with four clinical types: conventional, pseudopolyneuritic, pyramidal and bulbar. The age distribution shows a peak in the fifth decade of life. The sex ratio is 2.08:1. Considering together all the clinical types, the mean duration of the disease is 27.05 months. The bulbar variety has the poorest prognosis (19.6 months) and the pyramidal variety the best (37.59 months). Familiarity is evidenced in only 3 cases. All our data are discussed and compared with those of the literature.