Patient-specific anti=acetylcholine receptor antibody patterns in myasthenia gravis

Anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibodies have been determined in the sera of ten myasthenic patients over a period of several months which in each case included a series of plasma-exchanges coupled with immunosuppressive therapy. The ratio of anti-(extra-junctional rat AChR): anti-(human AChR) antibody titres was found to vary with the patient but to be constant for a given patient over the period of study. Similar indications of a patient-specific anti-AChR antibody pattern were obtained by using junctional as well as extra-junctional rat AChR and also by precipitation of human AChR in the presence of excess antiserum. Individual anti-AChR antibody patterns may have relevance to the varying courses taken by myasthenia gravis in different patients.