title: Childhood-onset anti-MuSK antibody positive myasthenia gravis demonstrates a distinct clinical course.
abstract: Anti-muscle-specific tyrosine kinase antibody (MuSK-Ab) is the second most frequent autoantibody identified in adult patients with myasthenia gravis (MG). Adult patients with MuSK-Ab demonstrate characteristic clinical features but very little information is available for childhood-onset patients with MuSK-positive MG. We report a childhood-onset female patient with MuSK-positive MG. This patient showed basic clinical features compatible with adult-onset MuSK-positive MG, but some features, including spontaneous improvement, are distinct from those in adult patients. Serial examination of MuSK-Ab titers revealed a gross correlation with clinical severity despite significantly high titers throughout the clinical course. Therefore, childhood-onset MuSK-positive MG may demonstrate a distinct clinical characteristics in the early period of illness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Minako
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sugiyama
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.forename: Tomoshiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Itoh
authors.forename: Kazuyori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yagyu
authors.forename: Hideaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shiraishi
authors.forename: Yukayo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ukeba-Terashita
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakanishi
authors.forename: Tetsuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagashima
authors.forename: Tomihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Imai
authors.forename: Masakatsu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Motomura
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saitoh
mesh_terms: D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D002648:Child; D018450:Disease Progression; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000503:physiopathology; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000097:blood*; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases