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Washington University Experience | NEURODEGENERATION | ALS | 3A ALS, pre atrophy (Case 3) Gross _3
Case 3 History ---- The patient was a 53 year old female with a history of ALS that started in 2011. She originally presented with numbness and tingling in her left hand which progressed to weakness. She had several episodes of falling which was attributed to a cardiac cause and required the placement of a pacemaker. By July 2012 she developed significant weakness of her arms and legs followed by slowing and slurring of her speech. She was wheelchair bound starting in September 2012 followed by difficulty swallowing and had a G-tube placed. Her respiratory capacity had also been diminishing as well and she died in March 2014. ---- At autopsy the weight of the unfixed brain was 1350g. ---- 3A The precentral gyrus shows mild atrophy; however, sections of the non-primary motor frontal lobe, occipital lobe, and cingulate gyrus show a relatively-well maintained population of cortical neurons with unremarkable underlying white matter.
