Advances in syndrome and treatment of motor neuron disease with traditional Chinese medicine

Abstract

Motor neuron disease(MND) is a group of progressive motor neuron diseases and the pathogenesis is not well defined.The pathologic hallmark of is death of lower motor neurons(consisting of anterior horn cells in the spinal cord and their brainstem homologues innervating bulbar muscles) and upper, or corticospinal, motor neurons.The clinical manifestations of are mucsle weakness, muscle atrophy, fasciculations, bulbar paralysis and positive pyramidal signs.Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) named as flaccidity syndrome.Recently, some scholars have proposed that MND can be regarded as an independent research object of TCM.At present, symptomatic supportive treatment is the main treatment for MMD in western medicine, which can only slow the progress of the disease.TCM treatment for has advantages of more effective than western medicine, fewer adverse reactions and lower price.So TCM can be used as an effective method for combined treatment of MND.This article reviews the research progress of syndrome and treatment of with TCM. Key words: Motor neuron disease; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Medicine, chinese traditional; Flaccidity syndrome; Hoarseness disease and miliaria; Etiology and pathogenesis; Treatment according to syndrome differentiation; Review