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C Provenzano

Publications and source records attributed to C Provenzano.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

Thymectomy in the treatment of myasthenia gravis: report of 247 patients.

We made a retrospective assessment of the long-term outcome in 247 consecutive patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) who underwent thymectomy in the period January 1971-December 1985. In 84 cases a thymoma was found at surgery, while 163 patients had a non-neoplastic thymus. The duration of symptoms before surgery, the age at onset of the disease and the presence of germinal centres in the thymus did not appear to influence the prognosis. Patients with a non-neoplastic thymus showed a better response to thymectomy. Thymoma was associated with more severe disease and with a higher mortality; moreover, more thymoma patients required corticosteroid treatment in order to achieve good therapeutic results. In our opinion, thymectomy is indicated in the treatment of generalized MG, while ocular myasthenia seems not to be improved by the removal of the thymus.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Familial autoimmune myasthenia gravis with different pathogenetic antibodies.

Two cases of familial myasthenia gravis are reported. One patient is a typical case of autoimmune myasthenia with positive anti acetylcholine receptor antibodies, while in the second patient the impairment of neuromuscular transmission is likely to be due to antibodies directed against determinants other than the acetylcholine receptors.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Neonatal myasthenia gravis: clinical and immunological study of seven mothers and their newborn infants.

We studied 7 mothers with myasthenia gravis (MG) and their infants. We confirmed that the development of neonatal MG was not related to the serum titer of maternal anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody (anti-AChR ab). To investigate the possibility that specific immunization of the newborn infant had occurred, serial serum determinations of total and 'specific' anti-AChR IgG and IgM were performed. We found that: the decay in total IgG was within the normal range in all the babies; there was a shorter half-life of 'specific' IgG, compared to total IgG, in 3 of the cases, 2 of which did have neonatal MG; no difference was found between the decay of anti-AChR ab in the babies who had neonatal MG and those who did not; there was no anti-AChR IgM-associated activity. Our data suggest that neonatal MG is due to maternal anti-AChR abs and that affected infants do not produce specific antibodies.

Autoantibodies↗