In addition to changes in behavior, personality and language skills that characterize FTD, people with ALS and FTD also have difficulty walking, standing, using their hands, speaking, swallowing, or breathing. [theaftd.org]

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), which causes muscle stiffness, difficulty walking and changes in posture. It also affects eye movements. [alz.org]

The ALS features of the disorder eventually render patients unable to stand, walk, get in or out of bed on their own, or use their hands and arms. [theaftd.org]

The pathologic hallmarks of the disease include pallor of the corticospinal tract due to loss of motor neurons, presence of ubiquitin-positive inclusions within surviving motor neurons, and deposition of pathologic aggregates. [uniprot.org]

C9orf72 and Other Novel Genes Implicated in Frontotemporal Dementia and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) of c9FTD/ALS. [mayo.edu]

“um”, “er”), and non-speech vocalizations such as coughing, laughing or sighing. Misread words were included in the analyses without any editing. [journals.plos.org]

Respiratory abnormalities explained the greatest variability in % time spent pausing, average duration of a speech phrase, and the coefficient of variation of phrase duration. [journals.plos.org]

“um”, “er”), and non-speech vocalizations such as coughing, laughing or sighing. Misread words were included in the analyses without any editing. [journals.plos.org]

Symptoms include drooling and choking on food or saliva. This can lead to malnutrition. Diagnosis The most recent work on diagnosing ALS (Strong, 2017) recognizes a wide spectrum of ALS presentations. [theaftd.org]

Abstract Mutations in the CHCHD10 gene have been recently identified in a large family with a complex phenotype variably associating frontotemporal dementia (FTD) with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), cerebellar ataxia, myopathy, and hearing impairment [ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

It is now suggested that ALS and FTD are closely related conditions with overlapping clinical, pathological, radiological, and genetic characteristics. [ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Genetic studies now suggest that this repeat expansion is the most common cause of familial FTD and ALS, causing 25 percent of familial FTD cases, 30 percent of familial ALS cases and 1 to 5 percent of sporadic cases. [mayo.edu]

The findings also suggest that motor speech assessment should be performed as part of the diagnostic workup for patients with FTD. [journals.plos.org]

The presence of psychiatric symptoms in the context of FTD-ALS should alert clinicians to the possibility of C9orf72 expansions. [ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Conversely, up to 30% of people diagnosed with FTD develop motor symptoms consistent with ALS. [theaftd.org]

Importantly, the superior cerebellum has been implicated in classic cerebellar motor symptoms such as ataxia [70]. [journals.plos.org]

While an ALS diagnosis requires only motor symptoms, prior studies have indicated that 8 to 15 percent of people with the condition also suffer from dementia, and that many more have milder problems with thinking or behavior (see Related Papers, below [alzforum.org]

Dysarthria Slow, slurred speech, due to an inability to move the mouth and facial muscles. Dysphagia The inability to swallow. Symptoms include drooling and choking on food or saliva. This can lead to malnutrition. [theaftd.org]

Examples include: Weakness in legs can lead to tripping and falls Difficulty grasping a pen or cup Difficulty lifting arms above the head Clumsiness when carrying out fine motor movements with hands or fingers (e.g. those needed to type, button a shirt [theaftd.org]