A type of bladder dysfunction caused by neurologic damage. Neurogenic bladder can be flaccid or spastic. Common manifestatios of neurogenic bladder are overflow incontinence, frequency, urgency, urge incontinence, and retention.

Difficulty in swallowing.

A type of hearing impairment in one or both ears related to an abnormal functionality of the cochlear nerve.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive disease that affects motor neurons, which are specialized nerve cells that control muscle movement. These nerve cells are found in the spinal cord and the brain. In ALS, motor neurons die (atrophy) over time, leading to muscle weakness, a loss of muscle mass, and an inability to control movement.\n\nThere are many different types of ALS; these types are distinguished by their signs and symptoms and their genetic cause or lack of clear genetic association. Most people with ALS have a form of the condition that is described as sporadic, which means it occurs in people with no apparent history of the disorder in their family. People with sporadic ALS usually first develop features of the condition in their late fifties or early sixties. A small proportion of people with ALS, estimated at 5 to 10 percent, have a family history of ALS or a related condition called frontotemporal dementia (FTD), which is a progressive brain disorder that affects personality, behavior, and language. The signs and symptoms of familial ALS typically first appear in one's late forties or early fifties. Rarely, people with familial ALS develop symptoms in childhood or their teenage years. These individuals have a rare form of the disorder known as juvenile ALS.\n\nThe first signs and symptoms of ALS may be so subtle that they are overlooked. The earliest symptoms include muscle twitching, cramping, stiffness, or weakness. Affected individuals may develop slurred speech (dysarthria) and, later, difficulty chewing or swallowing (dysphagia). Many people with ALS experience malnutrition because of reduced food intake due to dysphagia and an increase in their body's energy demands (metabolism) due to prolonged illness. Muscles become weaker as the disease progresses, and arms and legs begin to look thinner as muscle tissue atrophies. Individuals with ALS eventually lose muscle strength and the ability to walk. Affected individuals eventually become wheelchair-dependent and increasingly require help with personal care and other activities of daily living. Over time, muscle weakness causes affected individuals to lose the use of their hands and arms. Breathing becomes difficult because the muscles of the respiratory system weaken. Most people with ALS die from respiratory failure within 2 to 10 years after the signs and symptoms of ALS first appear; however, disease progression varies widely among affected individuals.\n\nApproximately 20 percent of individuals with ALS also develop FTD. Changes in personality and behavior may make it difficult for affected individuals to interact with others in a socially appropriate manner. Communication skills worsen as the disease progresses. It is unclear how the development of ALS and FTD are related. Individuals who develop both conditions are diagnosed as having ALS-FTD.\n\nA rare form of ALS that often runs in families is known as ALS-parkinsonism-dementia complex (ALS-PDC). This disorder is characterized by the signs and symptoms of ALS, in addition to a pattern of movement abnormalities known as parkinsonism, and a progressive loss of intellectual function (dementia). Signs of parkinsonism include unusually slow movements (bradykinesia), stiffness, and tremors. Affected members of the same family can have different combinations of signs and symptoms.

Cerebellar ataxia refers to ataxia due to dysfunction of the cerebellum. This causes a variety of elementary neurological deficits including asynergy (lack of coordination between muscles, limbs and joints), dysmetria (lack of ability to judge distances that can lead to under- or overshoot in grasping movements), and dysdiadochokinesia (inability to perform rapid movements requiring antagonizing muscle groups to be switched on and off repeatedly).

Dysarthric speech is a general description referring to a neurological speech disorder characterized by poor articulation. Depending on the involved neurological structures, dysarthria may be further classified as spastic, flaccid, ataxic, hyperkinetic and hypokinetic, or mixed.

Upturning of the big toe (and sometimes fanning of the other toes) in response to stimulation of the sole of the foot. If the Babinski sign is present it can indicate damage to the corticospinal tract.

Absence of neurologic reflexes such as the knee-jerk reaction.

Characteristic neurologic anomaly resulting from degeneration of dopamine-generating cells in the substantia nigra, a region of the midbrain, characterized clinically by shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement and difficulty with walking and gait.

In general, frontotemporal dementia (FTD) refers to a clinical manifestation of the pathologic finding of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). FTD, the most common subtype of FTLD, is a behavioral variant characterized by changes in social and personal conduct with loss of volition, executive dysfunction, loss of abstract thought, and decreased speech output. A second clinical subtype of FTLD is 'semantic dementia,' characterized by specific loss of comprehension of language and impaired facial and object recognition. A third clinical subtype of FTLD is 'primary progressive aphasia' (PPA), characterized by a reduction in speech production, speech errors, and word retrieval difficulties resulting in mutism and an inability to communicate. All subtypes have relative preservation of memory, at least in the early stages. FTLD is often associated with parkinsonism or motor neuron disease (MND) resembling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; 105400) (reviews by Tolnay and Probst, 2002 and Mackenzie and Rademakers, 2007). Mackenzie et al. (2009, 2010) provided a classification of FTLD subtypes according to the neuropathologic findings (see PATHOGENESIS below). Clinical Variability of Tauopathies Tauopathies comprise a clinically variable group of neurodegenerative diseases characterized neuropathologically by accumulation of abnormal MAPT-positive inclusions in nerve and/or glial cells. In addition to frontotemporal dementia, semantic dementia, and PPA, different clinical syndromes with overlapping features have been described, leading to confusion in the terminology (Tolnay and Probst, 2002). Other terms used historically include parkinsonism and dementia with pallidopontonigral degeneration (PPND) (Wszolek et al., 1992); disinhibition-dementia-parkinsonism-amyotrophy complex (DDPAC) (Lynch et al., 1994); frontotemporal dementia with parkinsonism (FLDEM) (Yamaoka et al., 1996); and multiple system tauopathy with presenile dementia (MSTD) (Spillantini et al., 1997). These disorders are characterized by variable degrees of frontal lobe dementia, parkinsonism, motor neuron disease, and amyotrophy. Other neurodegenerative disorders associated with mutations in the MAPT gene include Pick disease (172700) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP; 601104). Inherited neurodegenerative tauopathies linked to chromosome 17 and caused by mutation in the MAPT gene have also collectively been termed 'FTDP17' (Lee et al., 2001). Kertesz (2003) suggested the term 'Pick complex' to represent the overlapping syndromes of FTD, primary progressive aphasia (PPA), corticobasal degeneration (CBD), PSP, and FTD with motor neuron disease. He noted that frontotemporal dementia may also be referred to as 'clinical Pick disease' and that the term 'Pick disease' should be restricted to the pathologic finding of Pick bodies. Genetic Heterogeneity of Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Mutations in several different genes can cause frontotemporal dementia and frontotemporal lobar degeneration, with or without motor neuron disease. See FTD2 (607485), caused by mutation in the GRN gene (138945) on chromosome 17q21; FTDALS7 (600795), caused by mutation in the CHMP2B gene (609512) on chromosome 3p11; inclusion body myopathy with Paget disease and FTD (IBMPFD; 167320), caused by mutation in the VCP gene (601023) on chromosome 9p13; ALS6 (608030), caused by mutation in the FUS gene (137070) on 16p11; ALS10 (612069), caused by mutation in the TARDBP gene (605078) on 1p36; and FTDALS1 (105550), caused by mutation in the C9ORF72 gene (614260) on 9p21. In 1 family with FTD, a mutation was identified in the presenilin-1 gene (PSEN1; 104311) on chromosome 14, which is usually associated with a familial form of early-onset Alzheimer disease (AD3; 607822).

Abnormal cognition is characterized by deficits in thinking, reasoning, or remembering.

Reduction of neurologic reflexes such as the knee-jerk reaction.

Bulbar weakness (or bulbar palsy) refers to bilateral impairment of function of the lower cranial nerves IX, X, XI and XII, which occurs due to lower motor neuron lesion either at nuclear or fascicular level in the medulla or from bilateral lesions of the lower cranial nerves outside the brain-stem. Bulbar weakness is often associated with difficulty in chewing, weakness of the facial muscles, dysarthria, palatal weakness and regurgitation of fluids, dysphagia, and dysphonia.

Atrophy of the cortex of the cerebrum.

A lack of strength of the proximal muscles.

The upper eyelid margin is positioned 3 mm or more lower than usual and covers the superior portion of the iris (objective); or, the upper lid margin obscures at least part of the pupil (subjective).