This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.
Abstract
Background: Patients with MG often have other autoantibodies in addition to those against the acetylcholine receptor (AChR). It has been suggested that antibodies to the muscle protein titin may be diagnostic of a thymoma, but they have also been found in patients with late-onset MG. Antibodies to certain cytokines have also been detected in patients with MG and thymoma, and it is not clear whether these antibodies could be more useful clinically. The authors measured antibodies against titin and the cytokines interferon α (IFNα) and interleukin 12 (IL12) in patients with MG and thymoma or thymoma recurrence, and in patients with MG but without thymoma presenting before (early-onset MG) or after (late-onset MG) 40 years of age.
Method: Levels of titin, IFNα, and IL12 antibodies were determined by radioimmunoassay in 191 patients with MG and 82 controls.
Results: As previously reported, titin antibodies were uncommon in patients with early-onset MG. However, in patients with late-onset MG, titin antibodies had similar prevalence and levels to those in patients with MG and thymoma, although the antibodies were uncommon in patients between 40 and 60 years of age presenting without a tumor. By contrast, cytokine antibodies were more common in patients with thymoma than in patients without thymoma, and cytokine antibodies typically increased substantially if the thymoma recurred.
Conclusions: Measurement of titin antibodies has limited use in predicting the presence of a tumor, unless the patient is less than 60 years of age, but measurement of IFNα and IL12 antibodies may be helpful in identifying patients with a thymoma recurrence, particularly when mediastinal imaging is equivocal.
- Received March 30, 2001.
- Accepted July 7, 2001.
AAN Members
We have changed the login procedure to improve access between AAN.com and the Neurology journals. If you are experiencing issues, please log out of AAN.com and clear history and cookies. (For instructions by browser, please click the instruction pages below). After clearing, choose preferred Journal and select login for AAN Members. You will be redirected to a login page where you can log in with your AAN ID number and password. When you are returned to the Journal, your name should appear at the top right of the page.
AAN Non-Member Subscribers
Purchase access
Letters: Rapid online correspondence
REQUIREMENTS
You must ensure that your Disclosures have been updated within the previous six months. Please go to our Submission Site to add or update your Disclosure information.
Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.
If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
and apply to letter.
Submission specifications:
- Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
- Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.
