Late-onset Myasthenia Gravis

Abstract

It has been suggested that myasthenia gravis (MG) has two types as early and late onset. It was aimed to determine clinical characteristics of early and late onset MG in this study. It was reviewed files of 63 patients with MG who had been hospitalized to Department of Neurology, Ankara University Faculty of Medicine between 1988-1998. Fifty-three patients were 10-49 years old (group 1), 10 patients were older than 49 years old (group 2). it was seen that disease's first peak was at 20th years and second peak was 40th years old. The peak age of onset between 20-29 years in women and 40-49 years in men. There was no prognosis difference between group 1 and 2. Sixty-five percent of the patients who performed thymectomy showed hyperplasia, ectopic thymus or both although their thymus CT were normal. Prognosis was better patients who performed maximal thymectomy than submaximal thymectomy.