ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Dementia and Neurodegenerative Diseases
CHARACTERISTICS AND CLINICAL PHENOTYPES OF MOTOR NEURONE DISEASE IN A KENYAN HOSPITAL – BASED POPULATION
Provisionally accepted
- 1Aga Khan Education Services Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
- 2Curtin University, Perth, Australia
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ABSTRACT Background: Motor Neurone Disease (MND) presentation is globally heterogenous and data on the clinical phenotype in Sub – Saharan Africa (SSA) is scarce. We sought to address this by describing the profile of MND patients in a Kenyan hospital-based population. Methods: The medical charts of all adult MND patients assessed in the facility between January 2010 to December 2023 were retrospectively reviewed. The biographical data and clinical features of these patients were captured from their electronic and manual health records and statistical analysis performed. Results: In total, 160 patients had their data analyzed. The male to female ratio was 1.76:1. The median age at presentation was 55.0 (IQR: 45.0 – 68.0) years with a median diagnosis delay of 4.0 (IQR: 2.0 – 8.5) months. The site of first symptom onset was the lower limbs in 35.4% and the bulbar region in 34.0% (95% CI [26.4% - 42.5%]). Notably, 59% of the patients were not tested for HIV and amongst those tested, 13.9% were HIV positive on ART. Majority (56.7%) of the patients were on Riluzole. Conclusion: This Kenyan case series of MND patients demonstrated a higher rate of bulbar onset disease (34.0%, 95% CI [26.4% - 42.5%], p = 0.018) in comparison to what has been demonstrated in other African studies. A finding that supports geographic variation in MND presentation and that emphasizes the need for region specific genetic studies.
Keywords: Motor neurone disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, clinical phenotype, Sub – Saharan Africa / Kenya, Hospital – based study, Neurodegenerative disorders, HIV
Received: 09 Jul 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kamadi, Shah, Hooker, Jenkins and Sokhi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Effie Nailah Kamadi, ekamadi1@gmail.com
Dilraj Singh Sokhi, dilraj.sokhi@aku.edu
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