NEW YORK, Sep 22 (Reuters Health) -- For people with the degenerative nerve disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), malnutrition negatively impacts survival, French researchers report.
In a study, the research team found that the risk of dying was 7 times greater in malnourished patients than in those who received adequate nutrition.
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a slowly progressing, fatal disease for which there is currently no treatment. The disease features progressive muscle weakness, which over a 1- to 2-year period progresses to the point where the patient has difficulty speaking, swallowing, and breathing. People with a particular type of ALS, known as bulbar onset disease, have been thought to be at greater risk of malnutrition, according to Dr. J.C. Desport, of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Dupuytren in Limogen, France, and colleagues.
However, when the investigators followed 55 people with ALS for an average of 7 months, they did not detect any difference in the rate of malnutrition between people with bulbar onset disease and those with another type of ALS called spinal onset disease. In all, about 16% of the people in the study were malnourished, based on body mass index, a measure that takes into account weight and height.
Since the rate of malnutrition was similar in both bulbar onset and spinal onset disease, researchers emphasize the importance of nutritional monitoring of all ALS patients.
The report points out that some physicians who treat ALS recommend a feeding tube that delivers food directly to the stomach when a patient's weight drops by 5% to 10%. However, the researchers note that whether this is the most appropriate cutoff point is unclear.
