Myasthenia gravis and scleroderma: Two cases and a review of the literature

Acute presentation of autoimmune hepatitis in a patient with myasthenia gravis, thymoma, Hashimoto thyroiditis and connective tissue disorder

“…Myasthenia gravis can occur with some rheumatic diseases such as dermatomyositis, polymyositis and scleroderma 17,18,21 . This patient also had connective tissue disease with dry mouth and eyes, positive Schirmer test and lip biopsy.…”

“…Myasthenia gravis can occur with some rheumatic diseases such as dermatomyositis, polymyositis and scleroderma. 17,18,21 This patient also had connective tissue disease with dry mouth and eyes, positive Schirmer test and lip biopsy. Liver dysfunction in patients with collagen diseases is generally mild and the prognosis is good irrespective of the cause.…”

New onset of myasthenia gravis after treatment of systemic sclerosis by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: Sustained autoimmunity or inadequate reset of tolerance?

“…Several mechanisms were thought to favor the onset of systemic AD after HSCT, including (a) impaired function of regulatory T cells allowing self reactive T cells to act unchecked; (b) posttransplant infectious disease, as previously shown after alloge- Whether posttransplant infection by herpes zoster virus has served as a trigger of MG remains unclear [9]. Evidence that patients with SSc develop MG independently of HSCT is lacking, with only 12 such cases reported in the published data, apart from those related to the use of D-penicillamine [10]. In our patient, HLA typing was HLA A*-01/A-11, B*-44/B-55, DRB1*-08/DRB1-11, and after careful genealogical analysis no other AD was found among her relatives.…”

The True Association of Systemic Sclerosis with Myasthenia Gravis and the Myth of D-Penicillamine-Induced Myasthenia

“…We present a rare case of a patient with SSc who developed MG without concomitant exposure to d-penicillamine. Zivković et al have also presented two cases and reviewed the clinical features of published patients of co-existing SSc and MG, unrelated to previous d-penicillamine therapy (5). As shown in Table I, co-occurrence of MG and SSc was reported almost exclusively (13 out of 14 reported cases) in women with a range of latency from 6 months to 22 years.…”