Fulminant amyotrophic lateral sclerosis manifesting in a young woman during pregnancy

Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects upper and lower motor neurons. The incidence rate of ALS is age dependent, increasing from 40 years and peaking at 65–67 years. Youngonset cases are commonly attributed to familial disease, which takes 10% of all cases; however, sporadic cases of young-onset ALS have been also reported. In addition, the disease displays male predominance. Given such epidemiological background, ALS is an extremely rare entity in obstetric care. As clinical cases report both favorable and unfavorable courses of ALS in pregnant women, there is no definite trend regarding the effect of pregnancy on the manifestation and course of the disease. Here, we describe a case of fulminant ALS with a definite clinical diagnosis as per revised El Escorial criteria manifesting during pregnancy in a woman without a family history of ALS.