Sequential antibodies to potassium channels and glutamic acid decarboxylase in neuromyotonia

C Antozzi1, C Frassoni, A Vincent

  • 1Neurology Department IV, Immunology and Muscular Pathology Unit, National Neurologic Institute Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy. antozzi@istituto-besta.it

Neurology
|April 13, 2005
PubMed

A patient with thymoma-associated neuromyotonia and voltage-gated potassium channel (Kv1.2 and Kv1.6) antibodies by immunoprecipitation and rat brain immunolabeling was treated successfully with immunoadsorption and cyclophosphamide. Curiously, glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies, absent at onset, appeared later. Stiff-person syndrome was absent, but fast blink reflex recovery suggested enhanced brainstem excitability. The range of antibodies produced in thymoma-associated neuromyotonia is richer, and the timing of antibody appearance more complex, than previously suspected.

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