[HT-15] Hot Topics 15
Toward Early Diagnosis of ALS

[HT-15-2] The revised Awaji criteria

^○Hiroyuki Nodera (Department of Neurology, Kanazawa Medical University, Japan)

ALS has been a non-curable disease, but its disease-modifying therapy is emerging increasingly. There have been hundreds of promising therapeutic agents tested for its efficacy in animal models, but only few have been approved for humans with limited efficacy. As in Alzheimer's disease, it may not be possible to change its natural course if the regimen is started too late. To this end, the diagnosis of ALS should be made early, and more surviving motor neurons be tested for the efficacy of any agent. One of these criteria for early electrophysiological diagnosis is Awaji-criteria, and its has been shown that the diagnosis is made possible several months earlier compared with Airlie House-El Escorial criteria with similar specificity. Other disease-markers, especially for detecting upper motor neuron involvement, are now being explored. In this talk, the most updated information is reviewed on these measures for early diagnosis, which make it possible to start a potentially effective treatment for disease modification.

2019 - present: Associate professor, Kanazawa Medical University
2012 - 2019: Assistant professor, Director, EMG lab, Tokushima University
2010 - 2012: Assistant professor, Harvard Medical School (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center)
2009 - 2010: Peripheral Neuropathy fellow, Weill Cornell Medical College
2002 - 2009: Instructor, Tokushima University
2000 - 2002: EMG/Neuromuscular fellow, University of Rochester
1997 - 2000: Neurology resident, Indiana University
1996 - 1997: Transitional resident, Ball Memorial Hospital
1996 - 1996: Research assistant, Indiana University
1993 - 1995: Neurology resident, Kitano Hospital
1993 - 1993: Neurology resident, Kyoto University Hospital

Board certification: Japanese Board of Neurology; Japanese Board of Clinical neurophysiology (EMG/NCS); Japanese Board of Internal Medicine; American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (adult neurology, neuromuscular medicine); American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine