Trace elements, age, and sex in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis disease

The statistical tests analysis of variance, analysis of covariance, correlation coefficient, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test,t-test, and Tukey test were applied to copper, magnesium, managenese, and zinc content in serum (S) and in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of controls and of a sporadic form of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) disease. This is carried out in order to evaluate statistically the possible relationships among the trace elements when ALS patients and controls are considered as independent groups, within sex groups and within age decades of both patients and control classes. A statistically significant difference between older controls (age >40) and ALS patients (age>40) for copper in CSF, copper in S, manganese in S, and zinc in CSF was found. Statistically significant correlation coefficients within the different classes formed for this study were observed. Within this pool, a correlation of patient group can differ statistically from the corresponding one of controls and vice versa. Thus, this correlation could be characteristic of the group from which is extracted, e.g., the correlation between copper in S and zinc in S, which is characteristic of ALS patients when considered as an independent group as well as members of the male patient class.