title: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with positive anti-acetylcholine receptor antibodies. Case report and review of the literature.
abstract: Myasthenia gravis is a nerve-muscle junction disease, for which the most specific test is an increase in the anti-acetylcholine receptor antibodies (anti-AChR-Abs) titer. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease affecting both upper and lower motor neurons. Positive AChR-Ab in patients with pure ALS are exceedingly rare. We report the case of a patient with confirmed ALS and very high levels of AChR-Ab and review the literature on this topic.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA. mehanna@bcm.edu
authors.forename: Raja
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mehanna
authors.forename: Eddie L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Patton
authors.forename: Cecile L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Phan
authors.forename: Yadollah
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Harati
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000473:pathology; D009431:Neural Conduction / Q000502:physiology; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic