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Onset of Myasthenia Gravis After Thymectomy: Report of Two Cases

JEROME J. KLEIN, MD; ARLAN J. GOTTLIEB, MD; ROBERT J. MONES, MD; STANLEY H. APPEL, MD; KERMIT E. OSSERMAN, MD

Arch Intern Med. 1964;113(1):142-152.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Abnormalities of the thymus, including thymic tumors, have consistently been found in cases of myasthenia gravis since Weigert's observation in 1901.¹ Reports have recently appeared associating thymoma with other clinical syndromes: acquired hypogammaglobulinemia,² aregenerative anemia,³ and dermatomyositis.⁴ In this report are described two patients with thymoma and polymyositis who subsequently developed clinical myasthenia gravis. The findings in these cases and a review of the literature suggest certain relationships between polymyositis and myasthenia gravis and possibly between the disorders associated with thymoma.

Report of Cases

CASE I.

—A 61-year-old white housewife was admitted to The Mount Sinai Hospital in July, 1961, because of diffuse muscular weakness. Ten years previously an anterior mediastinal mass had been found on chest roentgenogram. The patient was then despondent over the deaths of two sisters from Hodgkin's disease, but was asymptomatic. No therapeutic measures were employed. Follow-up films demonstrated gradual enlargement of . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
NEW YORK

From the Myasthenia Gravis Clinic and the departments of medicine and neurology, The Mount Sinai Hospital.

Footnotes
Received for publication June 18, 1963; accepted July 26.

USPHS Trainee in Endocrinology, The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York (Dr. Klein). Present address (Drs. Gottlieb and Appel): Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, Bethesda, Md.

Supported in part by a grant from The Myasthenia Gravis Foundation, Inc.

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