Plasma creatinine: a potential prognostic biomarker in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?

Plasma creatinine is a prognostic biomarker for ALS correlating with muscle strength and functional disability

There is increasing recognition of profound clinical, prognostic, neuropathological and genetic heterogeneity of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), underscoring the need for development of reliable prognostic and outcome biomarkers that would be of vital importance in the design of cost-effective and more efficient therapeutic trials.1 The ALS functional rating scale-revised (ALSFRS-R) is a validated and reproducible biomarker of functional disability in ALS which captures clinically relevant features of disease progression, correlates with survival2 and has therefore been widely used in phase I and II trials.3 Despite the beneficial effects, the limitations of the ALSFRS-R score include its subjectivity, the non-linear decline over time and the fact that the scale is ordinal, thereby introducing uncertainty with regards to clinically relevant reduction values.3 In addition, measures of muscle strength and...

from #ORL-AlexandrosSfakianakis via ola Kala on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2z42wQ6