This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Pathology

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

The pathology of motor neurone disease involves changes that are:

  • macroscopic:
    • thinning of the anterior roots of the spinal cord
  • microscopic:
    • loss of neurons in anterior horns, cranial nerve nuclei, and the motor cortex
    • among the cranial nuclei, the hypoglossal nucleus, nucleus ambiguus and trigeminal motor nucleus are particularly affected with the third and the fourth nerve nuclei invariably spared
    • reduction of corticospinal and corticobulbar tract fibres - corticospinal degeneration is asymmetrical

Create an account to add page annotations

Add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation, such as a web address or phone number. This information will always be displayed when you visit this page