Rinsho Shinkeigaku
Online ISSN : 1882-0654
Print ISSN : 0009-918X
ISSN-L : 0009-918X
<Basic Education Program 9> Myasthenia gravis: Past, Present, and Future
Myasthenia gravis: Past, present and future
Hiroyuki Murai
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2014 Volume 54 Issue 12 Pages 947-949

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Abstract
Myasthenia gravis (MG) was first described in 17th century. It was after 1960s, when it became clear that MG was an autoimmune disease targeting AChR. Recently, anti-MuSK and anti-Lrp4 antibodies were found as novel antibodies in MG. In 1980s, in addition to cholinesterase inhibitors, high-dose corticosteroid treatment was introduced. This dramatically reduced the mortality rate of MG, but now we recognized that side effects of steroid have influenced patients significantly, and that high dose of steroid correlate with poor QOL. Since we have more means to treat MG at present, and also in the future, we should shift to the strategy in which steroid dose is kept low.
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© 2014 Societas Neurologica Japonica
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