Thymectomy and disease duration in non-thymomatous acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive myasthenia gravis: a single-centre, cross-sectional study

Introduction Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoantibody-mediated disorder of the neuromuscular junction. Autoantibody against the acetylcholine receptor (AChR-Ab) is detected in 80% of MG patients, and its production is associated with thymic follicular hyperplasia (TFH) and germinal centres in the thymus. In non-thymomatous AChR-Ab positive MG (AChR-MG), the therapeutic effect of thymectomy has been demonstrated.1 Although thymectomy is generally performed on patients with short disease duration, few studies have directly evaluated the impact of disease duration on the therapeutic effect of thymectomy. In addition, it is unclear whether thymectomy done after the early stage of MG is effective.2 We aimed to assess whether thymectomy during the early stage of MG has a better therapeutic effect than thymectomy done at a later stage in patients with non-thymomatous AChR-MG and whether thymectomy done at a later stage is more beneficial than medical treatment alone.

Source: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry - March 14, 2023 Category: Neurosurgery Authors: Chung, H. Y., Kim, S. W., Lee, J. G., Shim, H. S., Shin, H. Y. Tags: PostScript Source Type: research