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Biomedical subjects

E Bartoccioni

Publications and source records attributed to E Bartoccioni.

30 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

Ocular myasthenia: diagnostic and therapeutic problems.

Forty-eight patients with purely ocular myasthenia were studied. Tensilon test was positive in 46 patients (95%); decremental response from limb muscles was present in 24 patients (50%); anti-AChR antibodies were detected in 20 patients of 44 (45.5%). Twenty-two patients underwent thymectomy, 18 were given corticosteroids, 42 received AChE drugs. At the end of the observation period, 8% of the patients were in remission, 67% were improved, 25% were unchanged. In our experience, the diagnosis of ocular myasthenia relies mainly on clinical data; AChE drugs are not very effective in extrinsic ocular muscles; indications for thymectomy should be restricted to thymoma cases and, perhaps, to patients in the early stages of the disease, within the first year of onset; corticosteroids are effective in most cases, but relapses after withdrawal are not uncommon.

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↗
PubMed1982

When is there a full recovery for a myasthenia gravis patient?

A myasthenia gravis (MG) patient who seems to have recovered can later have recurrence of myasthenic signs. Clearly clinical remission does not always correspond to the normalization of all the factors involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. In ten patients who had apparently recovered from MG, electromyographic tests of repetitive supramaximal stimulation were performed and the anti-acetylcholine receptor (anti-AChR) antibody was assessed. In two of the ten patients all these tests were normal, thus showing lack of electromyographic myasthenic fatigability and the absence of circulating anti-AChR antibodies. Our hypothesis is that for these two subjects the risk of a recurrence of MG is lower than for the others.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Steroid-induced proteins in human endometrium.

The synthesis of soluble proteins in human endometria at various phases of menstrual cycle was evaluated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of [35S]methionine-labeled proteins. Densitometric analysis of the gels revealed alterations in the rate of synthesis of single protein bands throughout the cycle. Administration of conjugated estrogens (Premarin) to women undergoing hysterectomy, or exposure, in vitro, of the endometrial tissue to 17 beta-estradiol produced an increased incorporation of [35S]methionine into a specific protein which migrated on SDS-polyacrylamide gels at a molecular weight of about 55 000. Induction of this protein was observed only in those endometria showing a secretory histological appearance. The protein was resolved into at least 2 different spots in two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. An increase in the rate of synthesis of another endometrial protein with an apparent molecular weight of 51 000 was observed in tissues exposed in vitro to medroxyprogesterone acetate. These steroid-induced proteins may be a useful marker for studying hormone action in both normal and neoplastic endometria.

Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel↗
PubMed1981

Circulating immune complexes in myasthenia gravis: a study in relation to thymectomy, clinical severity and thymus histology.

Circulating immune complexes were assayed employing the method recently described by Barnett and Chia in a group of patients with myasthenia gravis. The subjects were classified according to clinical severity and immune complexes were sought before and after thymectomy. The operated subjects were further divided into those with thymoma or thymic hyperplasia. Antigen-antibody complexes were higher before thymectomy than after, in hyperplasias than in thymomas, and in severe myasthenia gravis than in mild disease. Circulating immune complexes and anti-acetylcholine receptor antibodies did not correlate.

Antigen-Antibody Complex↗
PubMed1981

Waldenström's macroglobulinemia and myasthenia gravis.

Until now, three patients with IgG and only one with IgM class monoclonal gammopathy (without the classical features of Waldenström's macroglobulinemia) have been reported in subjects with myasthenia gravis. A case of Waldenström's macroglobulinemia which occurred before thymectomy in a myasthenic patient is described in this paper. Both neuromuscular disease and the lymphocyte dyscrasia worsened after operation and before starting steroid treatment. No evidence of circulating immune complexes nor of anti-acetylcholine receptor antibodies belonging to the IgM class was found. The patient's HLA type shared A2 and B15 antigens with an IgG-lambda monoclonal gammopathy previously reported in a myasthenic woman, and his genotype included the Bw15 specificity which has been described to be frequent in Waldenström's macroglobulinemia. It appears that a persistent thymic abnormality, responsible for myasthenia gravis, may be associated with a lymphoreticular neoplasm.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Myasthenia gravis, thymectomy, and antiacetycholine receptor antibody.

The antiacetylcholine receptor antibody was titered in the serum of 63 patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) and 20 control healthy subjects. The titer was significantly high in 92% of MG patients in contrast with none of the controls and no correlation was found with the thymus pathology and the severity of the disease. The titer decreased after thymectomy almost steadily with the improvement of the myasthenic signs. The role of the antibody in the pathogenesis of the disease is discussed.

Acetylcholine↗