title: Clinical and immunological differences between early and late-onset myasthenia gravis in Japan.
abstract: Immunological characteristics of myasthenia gravis (MG) with late-onset have not been fully elucidated. We examined several autoantibodies and HLA-DRB1 genotyping in 260 Japanese MG patients. Sixty-two MG patients had thymoma. The others were divided into early-onset and late-onset groups separated by an age of 50 years. The ocular form was more frequent in late-onset compared to early-onset group. Seropositivity of anti-muscle-specific tyrosine kinase antibody was 2-3% in acetylcholine receptor-seronegative patients. HLA-DRB1 genotyping failed to detect statistical differences in specific alleles between each group and healthy controls. The immunological profiles in late-onset MG were different from early-onset in Japan.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Shigeaki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Kimiaki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Utsugisawa
authors.forename: Yuriko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nagane
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.forename: Masataka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuwana
authors.forename: Norihiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000276:immunology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000235:genetics; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology*; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D001324:Autoantigens; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains