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Heavier myasthenia gravis patients are at higher risk of having respiratory failure or other complications after their thymus is removed, a study reports. Doctors should monitor such patients closely to prevent severe postoperative complications, researchers contended. The thymus is a gland in the chest that plays a role in the immune…

Removing the thymus is an effective way to treat people with ocular myasthenia gravis, according to an analysis of previously published data that could resolve the controversy around the treatment. The Chinese researchers’ conclusion applied to thymectomies — or surgical removal — of thymuses that do not contain tumors. Myasthenia gravis is eliminated…

Medical professionals have debated whether removing the thymus of a person with myasthenia gravis is an effective way of treating their disease. A Phase 3 clinical trial seems to have settled the debate. It concludes that the surgery, known as a thymectomy, plus medication is better than medication alone in…

ALS and myasthenia gravis have features in common, including an underlying immunological mechanism and alterations in communication junctions between muscle and nerve cells, Chinese researchers report. The Peking Union Medical College team published its study in Frontiers in Neurology. Its title was  “Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Myasthenia Gravis Overlap Syndrome: A…

Alexion Pharmaceuticals has announced that the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has adopted a positive opinion to extend the approved indication of Soliris (eculizumab) to include the treatment of refractory generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) to patients who are anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibody-positive,…

University of Southern California researchers have gained insight into how antibodies connected with a disease known as myasthenia gravis destroy a receptor crucial to movement. Their findings may give scientists clues about how to prevent the disease. The study, “Structural insights into the molecular mechanisms of…