Clinical comparison of anti-MuSK- vs anti-AChR-positive and seronegative myasthenia gravis.

Journal article

We compared 65 anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChR)-negative myasthenia gravis (MG) patients, including 32 anti-muscle-specific tyrosine kinase (MuSK)-positive (49%) and 33 anti-MuSK-negative (seronegative) (51%) patients, with 161 anti-AChR-positive MG patients. The anti-MuSK-positive group had a higher frequency of bulbar involvement and respiratory crises. The seronegative group was in between the anti-MuSK positive and the anti-AChR positive groups, being closer to the latter, with regard to the severity of the disease. At the end of follow-up, the outcome of the anti-MuSK-positive patients was not different from that of the anti-AChR-positive patients, although their maintenance corticosteroid dose was higher. The seronegative patients had better outcome than the other two groups.

Authors: Deymeer, F; Gungor-Tuncer, O; Yilmaz, V; Parman, Y; Serdaroglu, P

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Neurology
• Volume: 68
• Issue: 8
• Pages: 609-611
• Publication date: 2007-02-01
• DOI: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000254620.45529.97
• EISSN: 1526-632X
• ISSN: 0028-3878
• Language: English
• Keywords: Prevalence; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Serologic Tests; Disease Progression; Predictive Value of Tests; Respiratory Insufficiency; Myasthenia Gravis; Female; Autoantibodies; Treatment Outcome; Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; Humans; Adrenal Cortex Hormones; Brain Stem; Middle Aged; Neuromuscular Junction; Receptors, Cholinergic; Causality; Biological Markers; Male; Adult