Ultrasound has revealed cross‐sectional nerve area (CSA) reduction in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but little is known about the sonographic nerve texture beyond CSA alterations. In a large cohort of 177 ALS patients and 57 control subjects, we investigated the covariance and disease‐specific signature of several sonographic texture features of the median and ulnar nerves and their relationship to the patients’ clinical characteristics. ALS patients showed atrophic nerves, a loss of the intranerve structures’ echoic contrast, elevated coarseness, and a trend toward lower cluster shading compared with controls. A reduction in intranerve echoic contrast was related to longer disease duration and poorer functional status in ALS. Sonographic texture markers point toward a significant reorganization of the deep nerve microstructure in ALS. Future studies will be needed to further substantiate the markers’ potential to assess peripheral nerve alterations in ALS.

中文翻译：

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肌萎缩性侧索硬化的超声神经改变的纹理标记。

超声检查显示肌萎缩性侧索硬化症（ALS）的横断面神经区域（CSA）减少，但除CSA改变外，对超声神经纹理的了解甚少。在177名ALS患者和57名对照受试者的大型队列中，我们调查了中，尺神经的几种超声纹理特征的协方差和疾病特异性特征，以及它们与患者临床特征的关系。与对照组相比，ALS患者表现出萎缩性神经，神经内结构的回声对比度降低，粗糙性增加以及簇状阴影降低的趋势。神经内回声对比度的降低与ALS的疾病持续时间较长和功能状态较差有关。超声纹理标记指向ALS中深层神经微结构的显着重组。