Respiratory complications associated with ALS

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Respiratory complications associated with ALS and their treatments

  • IRAS ID

    275592

  • Contact name

    ARI MANUEL

  • Contact email

    ari.manuel@liverpool.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Liverpool Univeristy Hospital NHS Trust

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 0 months, 6 days

  • Research summary

    Respiratory impairment is the leading cause of death in MND. Symptoms of respiratory dysfunction in MND patients include sleep disturbance, excessive daytime somnolence, morning headaches and cognitive changes. Almost all MND patients will develop respiratory problems during the course of their disease. In a small percentage of MND patients, respiratory failure may present as the primary symptom at onset, whereas more commonly it develops later in the disease. It is the cause of death in most MND patients
    Bilevel ventilation devices (Bi-PAP) are most commonly used as initial therapy. There are no established evidence-based guidelines regarding optimal timing for initiation of NIV
    However, there are no randomised control trial data available that have compared the specific parameters of bi-level modes of ventilation across various patient cohorts
    Future efforts must be focused on determining more accurate testing for early respiratory failure, optimal time to initiate NIV and the comfortable adaptation of NIV devices for patients with bulbar weakness

  • REC name

    N/A

  • REC reference

    N/A