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Article: Drug for Lou Gehrig's disease held effective
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- March 3, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1994 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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In what could be the first ray of hope for people with a
devastating fatal disease, French researchers report in today's issue
of the New England Journal of Medicine that an experimental drug
called riluzole doubled the survival time of some patients with Lou
Gehrig's disease.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- better known as Lou Gehrig's
disease, after the Yankees first baseman who died of it in 1941 -- is
a crippling nerve disorder that causes progressive muscle weakness,
including the muscles for breathing and swallowing.
The cause of ALS -- which kills 1 in 800 men and 1 in 1,200 women
-- is not clear, although researchers believe it may result from an
autoimmune problem in which a ...