Clinical features and genetic susceptibility of the familial myasthenia gravis / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To describe the clinical features and genetic susceptibility of the familial myasthenia gravis (FMG) patients. Methods The clinical data of 47 FMG patients and 2953 sporadic myasthenia gravis (SMG) patients from 1977 to 2003 were analyzed retrospectively, and 15 FMG patients, 36 SMG patients and 47 healthy controls were investigated for human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DQA1 genotyping by polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific primers. Results FMG was an autoimmune disorder disease and immunosuppressive therapy was as highly effective in FMG as in SMG. In all patients, 11(23.4%) cases improved significantly, 14(29.8%) cases relieved with only 5 mg prednidone, and 20(42.6%) cases relieved completely. Most FMG occurred in siblings and familial members within 2 generations, and no sexual difference was found. These suggested it should be atypical Mendel’s rules. Onset and clinical features of patients within the same family often had little difference. As compared with the SMG patients, the frequence of DQA1 *0301 allele was higher in FMG patients, especially in the ocular form, and the differences had statistical significance(40.0% vs 19.4%, P