Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disorder caused by autoantibodies against the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor on the postsynaptic membrane at the neuromuscular junction and characterised by weakness and fatigability of the voluntary muscles. It has a bimodal peak of incidence with first peak in the third decade and the second peak in the sixth decade. It is probably underdiagnosed in the ve...

Atracurium and alcuronium have been compared during halothane anaesthesia, by measurement of the mechanical response of the adductor pollicis muscles to train-of-four stimulation and by clinical observation. Atracurium appeared significantly shorter-acting than alcuronium. However, results suggested that the action of alcuronium may not be of "medium duration". A comparison of three indices of ...

The use of atracurium during major abdominal surgery was assessed in 20 infants with hepatic dysfunction caused by biliary atresia. An initial dose of 0.6 mg kg-1 provided excellent intubating conditions in all patients. Subsequent neuromuscular blockade was monitored with a peripheral nerve stimulator and incremental doses of atracurium were given on reappearance of a single twitch. Neuromuscu...

Twenty patients in the intensive care unit received an infusion of atracurium to permit mechanical ventilation. The duration of infusion ranged from 38 to 219 h and the average rate of infusion during the study was 0.76 mg kg-1 h-1. In 14 patients an increase in atracurium requirement occurred within the first 72 h of the infusion. Recovery from neuromuscular blockade after a prolonged infusion...

The effect of ketamine on the duration of atracurium-induced neuromuscular blockade was studied in 40 healthy patients anaesthetized with midazolam, fentanyl and nitrous oxide. Twenty received, in addition, i.v. ketamine 2 mg kg-1 followed by an infusion of 2 mg kg-1 h-1. Atracurium 0.5 mg kg-1 was injected i.v. and the time to 25% recovery of the twitch height was measured. It was 8.0 min long...

BACKGROUND Myasthenia gravis is a disorder of neuromuscular transmission associated with autoantibodies against the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. We have previously developed a customized protein macroarray comprising 1827 potential human autoantigens, which permitted to discriminate sera of patients with different cancers from sera of healthy controls, but has not yet been evaluated in ant...

BACKGROUND Generalized myasthenia gravis will develop in more than 50% of patients who present with ocular myasthenia gravis, typically within 2 years. The optimal treatment of ocular myasthenia gravis, including the use of corticosteroids, remains controversial. In addition, the prevalence of thymoma and the optimal performance of the edrophonium chloride test for ocular myasthenia remain unkn...