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In patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a decrease in body-mass index (BMI) was identified previously as prognostic factor for poor outcomes, potentially related to reduced food intake due to dysphagia, higher energy expenditure, or both. In this single-center study, researchers examined trajectories of self-reported BMI at 10 and 5 years before diagnosis and at diagnosis, in 381 adult ALS patients (30% bulbar onset, 33% cervical onset, and 37% lumbar onset) and 266 healthy controls. Using a commercial metabolomics platform, the researchers used consensus clustering to identify interconnected nonfasting plasma metabolites from ALS patients at diagnosis.
Participants had similar baseline BMI and increases in weight from 10 years…