Table 4

Measurements in blood of vascular risk factors in patients and controls

	Women				Men
	ALS (n=131)	Controls (n=1700)	OR^†	p Value	ALS (n=172)	Controls (n=400)	OR^†	p Value
Cholesterol, mmol/l, mean±SD^‡
Total	5.7±1.0	5.9±1.0	0.8	<0.01^*	5.3±1.1	5.8±1.1	0.6	<0.001^*
LDL	3.3±0.9	3.9±0.9	0.5	<0.001^*	3.1±1.0	3.9±0.9	0.7	<0.001^*
HDL	1.7±0.5	1.6±0.4	2.5	<0.001^*	1.4±0.4	1.3±0.3	2.1	<0.01^*
LDL/HDL ratio	2.1±0.9	2.7±1.0	0.5	<0.001^*	2.4±1.0	3.1±1.0	0.4	<0.001^*
High-sensitivity C-reactive protein, mg/l, median (range)^§	1.6 (0.2 to 238)	1.3 (0.2 to 53)	1.0	0.2	1.4 (0.2 to 65)	1.4 (0.2 to 120)	1.0	0.6
Homocysteine, μg/l, median (range)^§ ^¶	10.7 (5.2 to 32.7)	11.3 (4 to 76)	0.9	0.02^*	11.3 (4.8 to 23.2)	12.4 (6.4 to 33.4)	0.9	<0.001^*

Interpretation: OR shows the increased risk of developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) per unit increment in serum values. Example: low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in women: an increase of 1 mmol/l in LDL value results in 0.5× increased (=2× lower) risk of ALS.
↵* p<0.05 was considered significant.
↵† Computed by multivariate logistic regression adjusting for age.
↵‡ Mean±SD is provided for variables with a normal distribution.
↵§ Median (range) is provided for non-parametric variables.
↵¶ In women, a random sample of n=950 out of the n=1700 were measured.
HDL, high-density lipoprotein.