Abstract
A 46-year-old woman who had suffered from diabetes mellitus (DM) for 10 years developed blepharoptosis at the beginning of Dec, 1989. The symptoms were worse in the evening than in the morning. She was admitted to the hospital on Feb 20, 1990. She was diagnosed as having myasthenia gravis (MG) without thymoma (ocular form). Oral administration of 360 mg of pyridostigmine bromide was affective. DM was controlled by oral administration of 3.75 mg of glibenclamide. She was discharged on Jun 29, 1990.
Five diabetic patients with associated MG have been reported over the past 10 years in Japan. These six cases, including the present patient, were reviewed. It has been repored that the frequency of females with MG is higher than that of males with MG and that patients with MG over 70 years old are very rare. In these six cases, the male to female ratio was equal. Two of six cases were patients over 70 years old. In all six cases DM preceded MG. Two cases were IDDM; two cases, NIDDM; the remainder, unknown. In the three cases in which HLA antigens were reported, HLA-DR4 was observed. Diabetic patients with associated MG are seldom reported. In some diabetic patients MG may be a chance complication. Follow-up studies may resolve an association between DM and MG.
