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Genetic factors in myasthenia gravis: a family study
L Kerzin-Storrar1, R A Metcalfe, P A Dyer
1Department of Medical Genetics, St. Mary's Hospital, Manchester, England.
Neurology
|January 1, 1988
Abstract:
We studied forty-four patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) and their families. Thirty percent of patients had a confirmed family history of autoimmune disease; in one case this was MG. In all the families with autoimmune disease, the affected relatives were related to the patients through the maternal line. HLA-B8 and DR3 were increased in patients due to the high incidence of these antigens in female, nonthymoma patients with onset before 40 years. HLA-B5 was increased in patients with older onset. The haplotype A1-B8-DR3 was not found to be increased given the presence of B8 or DR3.