Aspectos clínicos, nutricionais a farmacológicos da esclerose lateral amiotrófica: um estudo bibliométrico.

Abstract

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease of progessive character which affects the upper and lower motor neurons, without sensory or cognitive impairment. Its etiopathogenesis is still not completely understood and its diagnosis is clinical, with estimated survival 3-5 years, leading to death by impaired respiratory muscles. The objective of this research was to perform a bibliometric analysis of the studies reviewed in order to quantitatively evaluate the scientific literature about the proposed theme as well as its dissemination, and to characterize the clinical features of ALS and to evaluate the quality of nutritional and pharmacological therapeutic actions. This study used two types of methodological tools, the integrative literature review and later a bibliometric study based on the studies reviewed. Then it was found that there is no effective therapy to prevent this relentless evolution and, among the many already tested, the one that could slow the progression of disease in only a few months, was riluzole (Rilutek®), an inhibitor of glutamate in the CNS. Although there is no cure for this disease, there are palliative treatments aimed at minimizing the symptoms, improve quality of life and increase patient survival. Nutritional therapy is among these, since malnutrition is very common in this disease. Therefore, nutrition therapy is essential and must be integrated into a multidisciplinary care. Also, related to bibliometric data after compiling the data, it was found that 53.5% of the authors ware doctors, followed by 26,7% of nutritionists; regarding the titling of these authors, 43% had a PhD and 22% ware masters. When it comes to national publications, the region that stood out in the scientific production about the theme was the Southeast with 21 published articles. Finally, it was analyzed the annual production, within the deadline for the review (2005-2015) realized that the years that stood out were 2006 with 13 articles of the 86 analyzed and 2005 and 2011 with 11 articles published about the subject, each one. Therefore it is evident the need for conducting more research related to ALS, and the real need for more bibliometric studies because the methodology proved to be efficient and able to produce valuable data when it is a little studied pathology and extreme complexity, serving to identify patterns and trends, as well as quantitatively guide the scientific literature related to the topic.