Association of Copper Status with Lipid Profile and Functional Status in Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Table 1

Clinical, nutritional, and biochemical characteristics of the participants.

Variable	Case group ()	Control group ()	value
Age (years)^a	56.0 (12.6)	55.4 (12.5)	0.9989
Sex^c
Male	13 (48)	11 (42)	—
Female	14 (52)	15 (58)	—
BMI (kg/m)^2a	22.6 (2.9)	27.3 (4.7)	<0.0001
Initial manifestation^c
Spinal ALS	20 (74)	—	—
Bulbar ALS	7 (26)	—	—
Disease time in months^b	46 (22–72)	—	—
ALSFRS-R score^b	21 (14–32)	—	—
>24 points^c	8 (40)	—	—
≤24 points^c	12 (60)	—	—
Feeding pathway^c
Oral	21 (78)	—	—
Enteral	5 (18)	—	—
Oral + enteral	1 (4)	—	—
Dietary copper (mg/dia)^b	1.3 (0.7–2.1)	0.9 (0.8–1.1)	0.4122
Plasma copper (μg/dL)^a	133.9 (26.5)	164.1 (25.7)	0.0001
Serum ceruloplasmin (mg/dL)^a	23.2 (6.3)	25.0 (4.2)	0.2271
Total cholesterol (mg/dL)^a	190.6 (45.6)	190.2 (41.9)	0.9761
LDL-cholesterol (mg/dL)^a	121.3 (38.1)	124.1 (35.9)	0.7877
HDL-cholesterol (mg/dL)^a	43.7 (9.5)	45.0 (8.6)	0.6162
Triglycerides (mg/dL)^a	126.0 (55.4)	124.9 (70.9)	0.9527

^aMean (standard deviation); ^bmedian (interquartile range); ^cfrequency (percentage); BMI: body mass index; ALSFRS-R: ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised.