There have been many reports as to combination of thymoma and myasthenia gravis which indicate primary lesions of the striated muscle fibers (Russell), but that of concurrent myocardial change like other voluntary muscles has been so far rarely mentioned. Only eighteen cases of myocarditis in association with thymoma or myasthenia gravis were reported in foreign literature (Table), but none of that was seen in our country.
According to recent immunopathological progress, new light has been thrown on etiological participation of thymoma with myathenia gravis, agammaglobulinemia and some refractory anemia, which might be consiclered to be an auto-immune disease (Burnet). Myocardial change of the present case that seems to reveal primary degeneration of myofibrils and myogenic giant cells with scarce granulomatous lesions, just the same as skeletal muscle, might offer the possibility to understand such a change in view of an auto-immune disease, although whether or not so-called giant-cell myocarditis is a disease entity, is a matter of controversy (Saphir, Tesluk).
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