Hi everyone ! Here's a short post on How and why to rule out Motor Neuron diseases.
Motor Neurone Disease includes a group of conditions where the Motor Neurons of your body begin to degenerate.
If these neurons are located above the level of the Alpha motor neuron of spinal cord , the result is UMN lesions , like Primary Lateral Sclerosis.
If the degeneration occurs in the Alpha motor neurons themselves , the result is LMN type paralysis, like Spinal Muscular Atrophy..
A combination of the two - UMN + LMN features as seen in - Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Now a few set of conditions are used as a way to exclude to MND.
MND itself isn't very common , and carries an extremely poor prognosis. Treatment options are extremely limited. So it's important to rule it out whenever you come across a Paraplegia , Quadriplegia, Bulbar or Pseudobulbar palsy patient .
An MND has No COBS.
C - No Cognitive changes
O - No Ocular motility involvement till late.
B - No Bladder bowel involvement till late.
S - No Sensory involvement.
There are a few exceptions to this -
Cognitive changes can be present if it's associated with Fronto temporal dementia. A lot of the familial cases are associated with this.
Behavorial changes can also be seen in a Pseudobulbar palsy patient. (More on that some other day !)
Sensory involvement may be seen in Hereditary spastic paraplegia - a variant of MND.
So that's all !
Happy studying !
Stay awesome !
~ A.P.Burkholderia.