Successful treatment of a 2-year-old girl with intractable myasthenia gravis using tacrolimus.
We used tacrolimus to successfully treat a patient with childhood-onset oropharyngeal myasthenia gravis (MG). A girl (2 years, 5 months old) with oropharyngeal MG responded partially to treatment including pyridostigmine bromide, intravenous immunoglobulin, and prednisolone (2 mg/kg/day) for 7 weeks, but this resulted in worsening of her eye symptoms. By contrast, tacrolimus at 2 mg/day resulted in complete remission of the MG, which made it possible to reduce the dose of prednisolone. This is a rare report of the use of tacrolimus as an effective treatment for patients with intractable childhood-onset MG.
Department of Pediatrics, Tohoku University School of Medicine, 1-1 Seiryo-Machi, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. kakisuke@mui.biglobe.ne.jp
Yosuke
Y
Kakisaka
Kazuhiro
K
Haginoya
Hiroyuki
H
Yokoyama
Mamiko
M
Ishitobi
Keisuke
K
Wakusawa
Ikuko
I
Sato
Noriko
N
Togashi
Taro
T
Kitamura
Naomi
N
Fukuyo
Yasushi
Y
Yoshihara
Kazuie
K
Iinuma
D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016559:Tacrolimus / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D016559:Tacrolimus