Associations between lifestyle and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis stratified by C9orf72 genotype: a longitudinal, population-based, case-control study.

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is considered to be caused by both genetic and environmental factors. The causal cascade is, however, not known. We aimed to assess lifestyle during the presymptomatic phase of ALS, stratified by C9orf72 mutation, and examine evidence supporting causality of lifestyle factors.

Effect modification of the association between total cigarette smoking and ALS risk by intensity, duration and time-since-quitting: Euro-MOTOR.

Background: We investigated the association between cigarette smoking and risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in a pooled analysis of population-based case-control studies and explored the independent effects of intensity, duration and time-since-quitting.

Methods: ALS cases and controls, matched by age, sex and region, were recruited in the Netherlands, Italy and Ireland (*Euro-MOTOR project). Demographics and detailed lifetime smoking histories were collected through questionnaires.

Multicentre, population-based, case-control study of particulates, combustion products and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis risk.

Objective: To investigate whether exposure to particulates and combustion products may explain the association between certain occupations and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) risk in a large, multicentre, population-based, case-control study, based on full job histories, using job-exposure matrices, with detailed information on possible confounders.

Methods: Population-based patients with ALS and controls were recruited from five registries in the Netherlands, Ireland and Italy. Demographics and data regarding educational level, smoking, alcohol habits and lifetime occupational history were obtained using a validated questionnaire.

Associations of Electric Shock and Extremely Low-Frequency Magnetic Field Exposure With the Risk of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

We explored the associations of occupational exposure to extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) and electric shocks with the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in a pooled case-control study (European Multidisciplinary ALS Network Identification to Cure Motor Neurone Degeneration (Euro-MOTOR)) of data from 3 European countries. ALS patients and population-based controls were recruited in Ireland, Italy, and the Netherlands between 2010 and 2015. Lifetime occupational and lifestyle histories were obtained using structured questionnaires.

Association between alcohol exposure and the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in the Euro-MOTOR study.

Objectives: Several studies focused on the association between alcohol consumption and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), although with inconsistent findings. Antioxidants may play a role since lyophilised red wine was found to prolong SOD1 mice lifespan. The aim of this international population-based case-control study performed in Ireland, The Netherlands and Italy was to assess the role of alcohol, and red wine in particular, in developing ALS.

Long-Term Air Pollution Exposure and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in Netherlands: A Population-based Case-control Study.

Background: Recently, there has been increasing evidence that exposure to air pollution is linked to neurodegenerative diseases, but little is known about the association with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Objectives: We investigated the association between long-term exposure to air pollution and risk of developing ALS.

Methods: A population-based case-control study was conducted in Netherlands from 1 January 2006 to 1 January 2013.

Multicentre, cross-cultural, population-based, case-control study of physical activity as risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Objective: To investigate the association between physical activity (PA) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in population-based case-control studies in three European countries using a validated and harmonised questionnaire.

Methods: Patients with incident ALS and controls were recruited from five population-based registers in The Netherlands, Ireland and Italy. Demographic and data regarding educational level, smoking, alcohol habits and lifetime PA levels in both leisure and work time were gathered by questionnaire, and quantified using metabolic equivalent of task scores.

Prognosis for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: development and validation of a personalised prediction model.

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a relentlessly progressive, fatal motor neuron disease with a variable natural history. There are no accurate models that predict the disease course and outcomes, which complicates risk assessment and counselling for individual patients, stratification of patients for trials, and timing of interventions. We therefore aimed to develop and validate a model for predicting a composite survival endpoint for individual patients with ALS.

A case-control study of hormonal exposures as etiologic factors for ALS in women: Euro-MOTOR.

Objective: To investigate the role of hormonal risk factors for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) among women from 3 European countries.

Methods: ALS cases and matched controls were recruited over 4 years in Ireland, Italy, and the Netherlands. Hormonal exposures, including reproductive history, breastfeeding, contraceptive use, hormonal replacement therapy, and gynecologic surgical history, were recorded with a validated questionnaire.

Critical issues in ALS case-control studies: the case of the Euro-MOTOR study.

Unlabelled: Backround: Political and sociocultural differences between countries can affect the outcome of clinical and epidemiological studies in ALS. Cross-national studies represent the ideal process by which risk factors can be assessed using the same methodology in different geographical areas.

Methods: A survey of three European countries (The Netherlands, Ireland and Italy) has been conducted in which incident ALS patients and matched controls were recruited in a population-based study based on age, gender and area of residency, under the Euro-MOTOR systems biology programme of research.

Exploring the fitness hypothesis in ALS: a population-based case-control study of parental cause of death and lifespan.

Objective: To investigate the theory of premorbid fitness in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), we studied whether a common genetic profile for physical or cardiovascular fitness was manifest in progenitors leading to less cardiovascular death and a longer lifespan in parents of patients with ALS compared with parents of controls.

Methods: Patient and disease characteristics, levels of physical activity, parental cause and age of death were obtained using a structured questionnaire from a population-based, case-control study of ALS in the Netherlands. Logistic regression was used for the analyses of parental cause of death and levels of physical activity.

No association between gluten sensitivity and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

To examine evidence for a role of gluten sensitivity (GS) or celiac disease (CD) in ALS etiology, we included participants from a population-based case-control study in The Netherlands between January 2006 and December 2015. We compared levels and seroprevalence of IgA antibodies to tissue transglutaminase 6 (TG6) in 359 ALS patients and 359 controls, and to transglutaminase 2 (TG2) and endomysium (EMA) in 199 ALS patients and 199 controls. Questionnaire data on 1829 ALS patients and 3920 controls were examined for CD or gluten-free diets (GFD).

Analysis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis as a multistep process: a population-based modelling study.

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis shares characteristics with some cancers, such as onset being more common in later life, progression usually being rapid, the disease affecting a particular cell type, and showing complex inheritance. We used a model originally applied to cancer epidemiology to investigate the hypothesis that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a multistep process.

Methods: We generated incidence data by age and sex from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis population registers in Ireland (registration dates 1995-2012), the Netherlands (2006-12), Italy (1995-2004), Scotland (1989-98), and England (2002-09), and calculated age and sex-adjusted incidences for each register.

Prior medical conditions and the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is believed to be a complex disease in which multiple exogenous and genetic factors interact to cause motor neuron degeneration. Elucidating the association between medical conditions prior to the first symptoms of ALS could lend support to the theory that specific subpopulations are at risk of developing ALS and provide new insight into shared pathogenic mechanisms. We performed a population-based case-control study in the Netherlands, including 722 sporadic ALS patients and 2,268 age and gender matched controls.

No mutations in hnRNPA1 and hnRNPA2B1 in Dutch patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia, and inclusion body myopathy.

Inclusion body myopathy (IBM) associated with Paget disease of the bone, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), sometimes called IBMPFD/ALS or multi system proteinopathy, is a rare, autosomal dominant disorder characterized by progressive degeneration of muscle, brain, motor neurons, and bone with prominent TDP-43 pathology. Recently, 2 novel genes for multi system proteinopathy were discovered; heterogenous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A1 and A2B1. Subsequently, a mutation in hnRNPA1 was also identified in a pedigree with autosomal dominant familial ALS.