INTRODUCTION Myasthenia gravis is a commonly undiagnosed condition in the elderly. Statin medications can cause weakness and are linked to the development and deterioration of several autoimmune conditions, including myasthenia gravis. CASE PRESENTATION We report the case of a 60-year-old Caucasian man who presented with acute onset of dysarthria and dysphagia initially attributed to a brain ...

Myasthenia gravis is a rare long-term neurological condition that is characterised by fluctuating skeletal muscle weakness and fatigue, as well as respiratory difficulties. It is both an acquired autoimmune disease and a chronic neuromuscular disorder. Because of its rarity, myasthenia gravis is relatively unknown and may be unfamiliar to many nurses. While there are various types of myasthenia...

INTRODUCTION Approximately ten to fifteen percent of patients with myasthenia gravis are found to have a thymoma, and twenty to twenty-five percent of patients with thymoma have myasthenia gravis. Thymomatous myasthenia gravis tends to have a difficult clinical course and poor prognosis. CASE PRESENTATION We report two cases (one patient of Asian ethnicity and the other of Caucasian ethnicity...

Atracurium is a nondepolarizing skeletal muscle relaxant used to facilitate endotracheal intubation and to induce skeletal muscle relaxation during surgery or mechanical ventilation. The drug undergoes a spontaneous non-enzymatic biotransformation, yielding laudanosine and an acrylate moiety. This report documents the case of a 45-year-old anesthesiologist who was found dead at the hospital whe...

Results from in vitro experiments, using the hypogastric nerve--vas deferens preparation, and the phrenic nerve--hemidiaphragm preparation of the guineapig, have been used to determine the separation between the neuromuscular and ganglionic blocking effects of atracurium and tubocurarine. Regression lines were used to calculate the concentrations of each drug (99% confidence limits) which would...

The potencies of atracurium, Org NC 45 and pancuronium were determined using cumulative dose-response curves. The effective doses producing 95% twitch depression were 279 microgram kg-1, 56 microgram kg-1 and 64 microgram kg-1 respectively, the relative potency being 1:5.0:4.3. The calculated log-probit dose-response curves showed the steepest slope for pancuronium, although the slopes did not ...

INTRODUCTION Graves' disease and myasthenia gravis are both auto-immune diseases and the coexistence of these two diseases is rare but well recognized. Myasthenia gravis is more frequent in patients with thyroid disease. CASE PRESENTATION Here we present a case of 28-year-old male patient having Auto-immune thyroid disease (Graves' disease) with concomitant myasthenia gravis. CONCLUSION In ...

ROWLAND, L.P., HOEFER, P.F.A., ARANOW, H., JR. & MERRITr, H.H. (1956) Fatalities in myasthenia gravis. Neurology (Minneap.), 6, 307. SAHAY, B.M., BLENDIS, L.M. & GREENE, R. (1965) Relation between myasthenia gravis and thyroid disease. Brit. med. J. i, 762. SIMPSON, J.A. (1960) Myasthenia gravis: a new hypothesis. Scott. med. J. 5, 419. SIMPSON, J.A. (1964) Immunological disturbances in myasthe...

The history of the development of knowledge of myasthenia gravis is reviewed. Clinical profiles of the immune and non-immune mediated forms of myasthenia are discussed. The current theory of pathogenesis is reviewed. Tests used to diagnose myasthenia gravis, and their comparative diagnostic yields are presented. Past and current modalities of treatment are reviewed. Future therapeutic stra...