Myasthenia gravis and elderly persons. A case study

Myasthenia gravis is an uncommon autoimmune disease which affects all ages. There are late-onset occurrences whose diagnosis is not considered often enough in geriatrics. We report a case of late-onset myasthenia gravis with a 78-year-old woman who was multi-pathologic and hospitalized for a diplopi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:La revue de medecine interne 2001-10, Vol.22 (10), p.984-987
Main Authors: Saraux-Bonneton, A, Raffin, B, Vautier, F, Laudet, J
Format: Article
Language:fre
Subjects:
Accidental Falls
Age of Onset
Aged
Diagnosis, Differential
Diplopia
Female
Geriatrics
Humans
Myasthenia Gravis - diagnosis
Myasthenia Gravis - pathology
Prognosis
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Summary:Myasthenia gravis is an uncommon autoimmune disease which affects all ages. There are late-onset occurrences whose diagnosis is not considered often enough in geriatrics. We report a case of late-onset myasthenia gravis with a 78-year-old woman who was multi-pathologic and hospitalized for a diplopia check-up and recurrent falls. These stress the difficulty of suggesting myasthenia gravis in geriatrics due to the number of differential diagnoses that can mislead the physician. For the elderly subject, the diagnostic methodology is close to that of the younger subject. The search for related diseases must be systematic. Late-onset myasthenia gravis must remain a diagnosis present in the mind of the physician because of the significant improvement of the functional prognosis after the start of the treatment. The majority of subjects will recover a normal life.
ISSN:0248-8663