title: Antecedent Disease is Less Prevalent in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recent studies suggest that antecedent disease could impact the pathophysiology of the motoneuron disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). We performed a case-control study to examine the prevalence of 11 antecedent diseases in ALS.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prevalence of antecedent disease in a 1,288 patient ALS population (Emory University ALS Clinic, Atlanta, Ga., USA) is compared to an age, gender, and geography-matched 7,561 subject control population using a statistical odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Association of ALS with odds of arthritis (OR = 0.14); non-ALS neurological disease (OR = 0.14); liver disease (OR = 0.19); chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder or COPD (OR = 0.23); kidney disease (OR = 0.32); adult asthma (OR = 0.39); diabetes (OR = 0.47); hypertension (OR = 0.56); obesity (OR = 0.6); hyperlipidemia or hypercholesterolemia (OR = 0.62); and thyroid disease (OR = 0.78).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of antecedent disease was overall less in the ALS population. We present two potential lines of inquiry to explain these results: (1) 'Other disease as ALS protection'--antecedent diseases infer biochemical neuroprotection to ALS; (2) 'ALS as other disease protection'--the underpinnings of ALS could infer protection to other diseases, possibly via the mechanism hypervigilant regulation or 'too-high' regulatory feedback gains.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, Ga., USA.
authors.forename: Cassie S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Sabrina K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Hollinger
authors.forename: Shivani D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Goswami
authors.forename: Meraida A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Polak
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Glass
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001168:Arthritis / Q000453:epidemiology; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D055815:Young Adult