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MYASTHENIA GRAVIS
D-penicillamine is a copper chelator. Thus the following study suggests that chelating copper may induce Myasthenia Gravis.
Autoimmune Thyroid Dysfunction Rare in Myasthenia GravisA DGReview of :"Clinical significance of autoimmune thyroid disease in myasthenia gravis"Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology & Diabetes 04/11/2000 By Mark Greener Some myasthenia gravis patients develop autoimmune thyroid disease. However, autoimmune-induced thyroid dysfunction is rare, a new paper concludes. The authors enrolled patients with 74 myasthenia gravis and 50 controls with no known thyroid disease. Of the myasthenia gravis patients, 86 per cent showed eye involvement and 56 per cent concurrent thymomas. Only one myasthenia gravis patient suffered from overt thyroid disease. Another patient had a history of Hashimoto's disease and positive thyroid autoantibodies. A third patient, who underwent partial thyroidectomy but who did not take replacement therapy, showed mildly elevated thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels. Five per cent of the myasthenia gravis patients showed antibodies against thyroglobulin, while 15 per cent expressed antibodies against thyroid microsomes. Among controls, the prevalence was 4 and 6 per cent, respectively. (The latter difference did not reach statistical significance.) Neither patients nor controls showed antibodies against TSH receptors. The authors conclude that autoimmune thyroid disease is associated with myasthenia gravis in some patients. However, autoimmune-induced thyroid dysfunction is "a very rare phenomenon" among myasthenia gravis patients, they write.
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