MYASTHENIA
GRAVIS
What is Myasthenia Gravis?
- The term "myasthenia" is Latin for muscle weakness, and "gravis" for grave or serious.
- Thomas Willis first described a patient with MG in 1672. There were other sporadic case descriptions over the years and in 1900, Campbell and Bramwell collected 60 cases of MG from the literature.
- Still the cause of the disease remained a mystery, until 1960 when Simpson proposed that myasthenia gravis was caused by antibodies against the acetylcholine receptor.
- In 1973 Patrick and Lindstrom demonstrated that MG is autoimmune in origin by showing that rabbits immunized with Torpedo acetylcholine receptor became myasthenic.
- Today, MG is one of the most thoroughly understood neurological disorders, which has lead to treatments which vastly improve the length and quality of life of myasthenics.
History
A chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease characterized by varying degrees of weakness of the skeletal (voluntary) muscles of the body. The hallmark of myasthenia gravis is muscle weakness that increases during periods of activity and improves after periods of rest. Muscles that control eye and eyelid movement, facial expression, chewing, talking, and swallowing are often, but not always, involved in the disorder. (muscles that control breathing and neck movements also may be affected.)
Latest news on Myasthenia Gravis
Facts and Figures
- The disease first appeared in medical reports in 1672, but didn’t earn its name, which literally means "grave muscular weakness", until the 1880s.
- MG affects two to seven out of every 10,000 people in Western countries.
- It occurs about one and a half times more often in women than in men.
- The disease can appear at any age, but the average age of onset in females is 28; in males, it’s 42. In about 10 percent of cases, MG begins in childhood (juvenile onset).
- Even in the early 20th century, the mortality rate of MG was around 70 percent. Doctors now estimate that, when treated properly, these days the mortality rate should be zero
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