Long-term follow up of thymus in patients with myasthenia gravis

Sugawara, Masashiro; Wada, Chizu; Okawa, Satoshi; Kobayashi, Michio; Abe, Erika; Obara, Koji; Kamada, Sachiko; Ohnishi, Hirohide; Toyoshima, Itaru

doi:10.1016/j.jneuroim.2009.12.010

« Previous Next »Journal of Neuroimmunology
Volume 221, Issue 1 , Pages 121-124, 15 April 2010

Long-term follow up of thymus in patients with myasthenia gravis

Masashiro Sugawara
- Department of Neurology, Akita University, Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan
- Corresponding author. Hondo 1-1-1, Akita 010-8543, Japan. Tel.: +81 18 884 6104; fax: +81 18 836 2611.
Chizu Wada
- Department of Neurology, Akita University, Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan
- Medical Education Center, Akita University, Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan
Satoshi Okawa
- Department of Neurology, Akita University, Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan
Michio Kobayashi
- Department of Neurology, Akita University, Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan
Erika Abe
- Department of Neurology, Akita University, Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan
Koji Obara
- Department of Neurology, Akita University, Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan
Sachiko Kamada
- Department of Neurology, Akita University, Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan
Hirohide Ohnishi
- Department of Neurology, Akita University, Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan
Itaru Toyoshima
- Department of Neurology, Akita University, Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan
- Medical Education Center, Akita University, Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan

Received 18 June 2009; received in revised form 10 November 2009; accepted 24 December 2009. published online 29 January 2010.

Abstract

We examined transversely the thymus of 33 myasthenia gravis (MG) patients followed up for more than 5years and found three thymomas. One was found 21years after thymoma resection (Masaoka I, WHO Type B2 thymoma) and extended thymectomy. The other two were non-thymomatous at onset, and they were not treated with extended thymectomy. Therapeutic guidelines should mention the importance of follow-up in MG thymus.