Neuromuscular Disorders
Volume 17, Issue 11 , Pages 935-942 , December 2007

Muscle lymphocytic infiltrates in thymoma-associated myasthenia gravis are phenotypically different from those in polymyositis

  • Josef Zamecnik

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Charles University, 2nd Medical Faculty and Faculty Hospital Motol, V Uvalu 84, 150 06 Prague, Czech Republic
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +420 224 435 635; fax: +420 224 435 620.
    • ,
  • Dan Vesely

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Charles University, 2nd Medical Faculty and Faculty Hospital Motol, V Uvalu 84, 150 06 Prague, Czech Republic
    • ,
  • Branislav Jakubicka

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Charles University, 2nd Medical Faculty and Faculty Hospital Motol, V Uvalu 84, 150 06 Prague, Czech Republic
    • ,
  • Libuse Simkova

      Affiliations

    • Department of Neurology, Charles University, 1st Medical Faculty, Prague, Czech Republic
    • ,
  • Jiri Pitha

      Affiliations

    • Department of Neurology, Charles University, 3rd Medical Faculty, Prague, Czech Republic
    • ,
  • Jan Schutzner

      Affiliations

    • 3rd Department of Surgery, Charles University, 1st Medical Faculty and Faculty Hospital Motol, Prague, Czech Republic
    • ,
  • Radim Mazanec

      Affiliations

    • Department of Neurology, Charles University, 2nd Medical Faculty, Prague, Czech Republic
    • ,
  • Hannes Vogel

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA

Received 10 April 2007 ,Revised 21 May 2007 ,Accepted 25 May 2007.

References 

  1. Romi F, Gilhus NE, Aarli JA. Myasthenia gravis: clinical, immunological, and therapeutic advances. Acta Neurol Scand. 2005;111:134–141
  2. Engel AG. Acquired myasthenia gravis. In:  Engel AG,  Franzini-Armstrong C editor. Myology. 3rd ed.. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional; 2004;p. 1755–1790
  3. Buzzard EF. The clinical history and post-mortem examination of five cases of myasthenia gravis. Brain. 1905;28:438–483
  4. Pascuzzi RM, Campa JF. Lymphorrhage localized to the muscle end-plate in myasthenia gravis. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 1988;112:934–937
  5. Maselli RA, Richman DP, Wollmann RL. Inflammation at the neuromuscular junction in myasthenia gravis. Neurology. 1991;41:1497–1504
  6. Nakano S, Engel AG. Myasthenia gravis: quantitative immunocytochemical analysis of inflammatory cells and detection of complement membrane attack complex at the end-plate in 30 patients. Neurology. 1993;43:1167–1172
  7. Aarli JA. Inflammatory myopathy in myasthenia gravis. Curr Opin Neurol. 1998;11:233–234
  8. Nagaraju K. Update on immunopathogenesis in inflammatory myopathies. Curr Opin Rheumatol. 2001;13:461–468
  9. Jaretzki A, Barohn RJ, Ernstoff RM, et al. Myasthenia gravis: recommendations for clinical research standards. Task Force of the Medical Scientific Advisory Board of the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America. Neurology. 2000;55:16–23
  10. Travis WD, Müller-Hermelink HK, Harris CC, Brambilla E. Pathology and genetics of tumours of the lung, pleura, thymus and heart. Lyon: IARC Press; 2004;
  11. Sheehan DC, Hrapchak BB. Theory and practice of histotechnology. 2nd ed.. Mosby: Columbus, Ohio; 1987;
  12. Vogel H, Zamecnik J. Diagnostic immunohistology of muscle diseases. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2005;64:181–193
  13. Osserman KE, Genkins G. Studies in myasthenia gravis: review of a twenty-year experience in over 1200 patients. Mt Sinai J Med. 1971;38:497–537
  14. Detterbeck FC, Scott WW, Howard JF, et al. One hundred consecutive thymectomies for myasthenia gravis. Ann Thorac Surg. 1996;62:242–245
  15. Raschilas F, Mouthon L, Andre MH, et al. Concomitant polymyositis and myasthenia gravis reveal malignant thymoma. A case report and review of the literature. Ann Med Interne (Paris). 1999;150:370–373
  16. Hoffacker V, Schultz A, Tiesinga JJ, et al. Thymomas alter the T-cell subset composition in the blood: a potential mechanism for thymoma-associated autoimmune disease. Blood. 2000;96:3872–3879
  17. Marx A, Muller-Hermelink HK, Strobel P. The role of thymomas in the development of myasthenia gravis. Ann NY Acad Sci. 2003;998:223–236
  18. Barton AD. T-cell lymphocytosis associated with lymphocyte-rich thymoma. Cancer. 1997;80:1409–1417
  19. Cranney A, Markman S, Lach B, Karsh J. Polymyositis in a patient with thymoma and T cell lymphocytosis. J Rheumatol. 1997;24:1413–1416
  20. Doll DC, Landreneau RJ, List AF. Malignant thymoma associated with peripheral T-cell lymphocytosis. Med Pediatr Oncol. 1991;19:496–498
  21. Medeiros LJ, Bhagat SK, Naylor P, et al. Malignant thymoma associated with T-cell lymphocytosis. A case report with immunophenotypic and gene rearrangement analysis. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 1993;117:279–283
  22. Otton SH, Standen GR, Ormerod IE. T cell lymphocytosis associated with polymyositis, myasthenia gravis and thymoma. Clin Lab Haematol. 2000;22:307–308
  23. Kondo K, Monden Y. Myasthenia gravis appearing after thymectomy for thymoma. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 2005;28:22–25
  24. Reznik M. Two cases of myasthenic syndrome with thymoma, polymyositis, myocarditis, and thyroiditis. J Neurol Sci. 1974;22:341–351
  25. Luther C, Poeschel S, Varga M, Melms A, Tolosa E. Decreased frequency of intrathymic regulatory T cells in patients with myasthenia-associated thymoma. J Neuroimmunol. 2005;164:124–128
  26. Strobel P, Helmreich M, Menioudakis G, et al. Paraneoplastic myasthenia gravis correlates with generation of mature naive CD4(+) T cells in thymomas. Blood. 2002;100:159–166

PII: S0960-8966(07)00190-3

doi: 10.1016/j.nmd.2007.05.010

Neuromuscular Disorders
Volume 17, Issue 11 , Pages 935-942 , December 2007

Article Tools

* Image Usage & Resolution