Primary lateral sclerosis and hereditary spastic paraplegia in sporadic patients. An important distinction in descriptive studies.

Abstract Differentiating between primary lateral sclerosis and apparently sporadic hereditary spastic paraplegia patients is an important but difficult issue in transversal studies. Consequently, these patients have been indistinctly classified as primary lateral sclerosis or sporadic HSP in different publications, further contributing to the confusion between both diseases. In our opinion, Schule et al have not reliably excluded PLS in their cohort of simplex HSP, what could affect their reported results. We think that a clearer distinction should be made between both diseases and we propose new definitions and criteria to facilitate this differentiation. This article is protected by copyr…