MuSK-antibody positive myasthenia gravis: clinical and electrodiagnostic patterns

To examine the clinical manifestations and patterns of electromyographic abnormalities in MuSK-Ab positive myasthenia gravis.

The clinical evaluations and electrodiagnostic testing results of 20 MuSK-Ab positive myasthenia gravis patients were retrospectively reviewed and compared with matched AChR-Ab positive (N = 72) and MuSK-Ab negative/AChR-Ab negative (N = 24) patients.

MuSK-Ab positive patients were younger and more frequently female and African-American, and compared to the AChR-Ab positive patients, were more likely to present with respiratory symptoms or neck extension weakness. MuSK-Ab positive patients were less likely to have abnormal jitter in a limb muscle: only 59% had abnormal jitter in the extensor digitorum communis muscle, compared to 80% of the AChR-Ab negative/MuSK-negative patients and 91% of the AChR-Ab positive patients.

Our MuSK-Ab positive patients not only differ demographically from our MuSK-Ab negative cohort, but they also appear to have a more limited distribution of SFEMG abnormalities.

The possibility that electrophysiologic abnormalities may not be widely distributed should be considered during electrodiagnostic evaluation of suspected MuSK-Ab positive MG and in selecting muscles for molecular, morphologic, or microphysiologic studies in this condition.