Caracterización de miastenia gravis en pacientes tratados en el Hospital Teodoro Maldonado Carbo en el periodo de enero del 2013 - diciembre 2018.

Abstract

Introduction: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a chronic, neuromuscular and autoimmune disease mediated by autoantibodies against the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. The weakness can remain confined to the eye muscles for a long time or advance to other muscles such as chewing, breathing or limbs, becoming a degree of generalized myasthenia gravis which in addition to incapacitating can lead to death. Objective: To describe the characteristics of MG in patients treated at Hospital Teodoro Maldonado Carbo (HTMC). Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study of prevalence, which included people treated at the Teodoro Maldonado Carbo Hospital from January 2013 to December 2018 with clinical suspicion of myasthenia gravis. Sample: 110 clinical histories were reviewed, of which 78 of them fulfilled with the inclusion criteria. All these patients had MG diagnosis by clinical and complementary tests. Results: It was evidenced that the MG affected more to the feminine sex since of the 78 patients, 42 were women (53.85%) and 36 men (46.15%). Regarding the most common age of onset of symptoms, it was found that in women, MG occurs more frequently at 31 years of age, whereas in men it tends to appear later after 54 years, with a total average of age of 41.3 years (range of age: 8 to 80 years). According to the Osserman scale, 25 patients (32.05%) presented ocular signs as symptomatology of onset while 53 patients (67.95%) presented symptoms of generalized characteristic at the beginning of the disease (IIA 28.21%, IIB29.49%, III 10.26%). The pathologies of the thymus were more relevant in women than in men (P = 0.06). Regarding the surgical approach, of the 78 patients, 38 (48.72%) were required to undergo a thymectomy while 40 (51.28%) patients were not subjected to this procedure. Conclusions: MG is an autoimmune neurological pathology that occurs in a greater proportion in women. In our setting, grade I according to the Osserman scale was the most presented clinical symptomatology and it was evidenced that the thymectomized patients showed improvement of the symptoms during the time of study.