Respiratory onset in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: clinical features and spreading pattern.

To describe the clinical features and progression of patients with respiratory onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). : We analyzed the clinical features, including respiratory tests, functional score, noninvasive ventilation (NIV) time and survival of ALS patients with respiratory-onset in our database consisting of 1688 patients. In a subset of 625 ALS patients we analyzed the spreading pattern to other bodily regions.