Analysis of clinical manifestations and diagnosis of late-onset myasthenia gravis

• Published in: Nervno-myshechnye bolezni 2020-06, Vol.10 (1), p.53-63
• Main Authors: Khalmurzina, A. N., Alekseeva, T. M., Lobzin, S. V., Rudenko, D. I., Kryuchkova, V. V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: diagnosis; features; myasthenia gravis
• ISSN: 2222-8721; 2413-0443
• DOI: 10.17650/2222-8721-2020-10-1-53-63

Introduction. Myasthenia gravis is one of the most common autoimmune neuromuscular diseases, the peak incidence is in the age of 20–40 years. However, studies show that throughout the world in recent decades there has been an increase in the prevalence and incidence of myasthenia gravis among older people. Purpose of the study – to evaluate the clinical manifestations and diagnostic features of myasthenia gravis in patients with an onset of diseases in the elderly. Materials and methods. The retrospective, non-interventional study included 315 patients over 18 years old with a reliable (3 out of 4 criteria) and an undoubted (4 out of 4 criteria) diagnosis of myasthenia gravis, the duration of the disease for up to 5 years, undergoing inpatient treatment from 2001 to 2017 years. The severity of the clinical manifestations of myasthenia gravis was assessed using the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America scale. We were taken into account the information about the first symptoms, duration of the period from the onset of the disease to the verification of the diagnosis, results of the examinations, the presence of concomitant diseases and treatment methods. Results. The most common symptom of myasthenia gravis in the group of patients with debut disease aged 60 years and older was ptosis (p