pathology
Last reviewed 01/2018
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