News

Gut microbiota is altered in people with myasthenia gravis (MG), opening the door for exploring the use of microbiota-modulating therapies, like probiotics, as potential ways of better managing the disease. Results of the pilot study, “Fecal microbiota profile in a group of myasthenia gravis patients,” were published in…

Two timed walk tests were found to be highly reliable for the measurement of exercise capacity in patients with mild to moderate generalized myasthenia gravis (MG), a study reports. The six-minute walk test (6MWT) and the…

Half a year has gone by since disgraced pharma executive Martin Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for securities and wire fraud while heading San Diego-based Retrophin. As founder and CEO of another company (then known as Turing Pharmaceuticals), in late 2015 Shkreli bought the rights…

More than 700 medical experts, pharmaceutical executives, patient advocates, and others are expected to converge on Washington, D.C., next month for the 2018 NORD Rare Diseases & Orphan Products Breakthrough Summit. The Oct. 15-16 event, sponsored by the National Organization for Rare Diseases (NORD), takes place at the…

Thymoma, a tumor of the thymus gland that can be benign or malignant, elevates ocular myasthenia gravis (MG) patients’ risk of developing a generalized form of the disease, a case series in Germany reported. Within two…

Patients with facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (FSHD) — a type of muscular dystrophy — can develop myasthenia gravis, possibly because of underlying immune dysfunction. A letter to the editor describing the case, titled “A case of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy and myasthenia gravis with positivity of anti-Ach receptor antibody: a fortuitous association?” was published…

Robot-assisted surgery to remove the thymus gland is considered a safe method of performing a thymectomy on myasthenia gravis patients, a recent study in Singapore shows. The study, “Robotic Thymectomy in Patients With Myasthenia Gravis,…

Myasthenia gravis patients have a greater risk of having autoimmune rheumatic diseases, especially those who underwent a thymectomy, according to researchers in Taiwan. Their study, “Thymectomy in patients with myasthenia gravis increases the risk of autoimmune rheumatic diseases: a nationwide cohort study,” was published in the journal Rheumatology.

Physicians should consider a myasthenia gravis diagnosis in patients who exhibit symptoms such as dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), dysphonia (difficulty speaking), palatal weakness, or a feeling that the tongue is swollen, according to a case report. The case study, “Misdiagnosis of myasthenia gravis presenting with tongue and palatal weakness,” was…

Hormones produced by adipose (fat) tissue, called adipokines, can help assess the progression and status of myasthenia gravis, researchers suggest. A team at Medical University of Silesia in Poland assessed the association between the levels of different adipokines and clinical factors that characterize myasthenia gravis. The study, “…