Abstract
Seronegative myasthenia gravis (MG) presents a serious gap in MG diagnosis and understanding. We applied a cell based assay (CBA) for the detection of muscle specific kinase (MuSK) antibodies undetectable by radioimmunoassay. We tested 633 triple-seronegative MG patients' sera from 13 countries, detecting 13% as positive. MuSK antibodies were found, at significantly lower frequencies, in 1.9% of healthy controls and 5.1% of other neuroimmune disease patients, including multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica. The clinical data of the newly diagnosed MuSK-MG patients are presented. 27% of ocular seronegative patients were MuSK antibody positive. Moreover, 23% had thymic hyperplasia suggesting that thymic abnormalities are more common than believed.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 10-17 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Neuroimmunology |
Volume | 284 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 15 Jul 2015 |
Keywords
- Autoantibodies
- Cell based assay
- Diagnosis
- MuSK
- Myasthenia gravis