This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.
Enteroviruses (EV) are responsible for acute infections of the CNS, such as aseptic meningitis and encephalitis, and are involved also in chronic diseases like myocardiopathy and some type 2 juvenile diabetes.1 We have recently reported that echovirus 6- or 7-like sequences could be detected in motor neurons of the anterior horn of patients with ALS.2 Previous studies on ALS have suggested viruses as putative etiologic agents.3,4⇓ However, these studies turned out to be negative or their results could not be confirmed, leading to a viral hide-and-seek in sporadic ALS.5 However, our previous study carried out with spinal cord samples collected from French patients was consistent with a report with British samples.6 Both studies reported that enterovirus sequences could be detected by PCR in spinal cord samples of 86% (15/17) and 72% (8/11) of the patients with ALS analyzed, respectively. In the light of the past false leads on viruses in ALS, these findings have to be confirmed with additional studies.5 Moreover, as these two studies were performed with samples collected in Europe, these data might have a very unlikely but, however, possible geographic bias. To investigate both questions (reproducibility and geographic bias), we analyzed 19 spinal cord samples collected from Japanese patients, which included ALS and non-ALS cases. The material consisted of 5- to 7-cm-long blocks of the cervical enlargement of the spinal cord collected during autopsy and immediately frozen on dry ice and stored at −80 °C. These specimens had been blinded before being sent on dry ice to Lyon, France. …
AAN Members
We have changed the login procedure to improve access between AAN.com and the Neurology journals. If you are experiencing issues, please log out of AAN.com and clear history and cookies. (For instructions by browser, please click the instruction pages below). After clearing, choose preferred Journal and select login for AAN Members. You will be redirected to a login page where you can log in with your AAN ID number and password. When you are returned to the Journal, your name should appear at the top right of the page.
AAN Non-Member Subscribers
Purchase access
Letters: Rapid online correspondence
REQUIREMENTS
You must ensure that your Disclosures have been updated within the previous six months. Please go to our Submission Site to add or update your Disclosure information.
Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.
If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
and apply to letter.
Submission specifications:
- Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
- Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.
