Myasthenia Gravis is a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disorder, whereby voluntary muscle groups fluctuate by its level of weakness. While this disease affects multiple areas within the body, it most commonly affects the eyelid muscles, which causes the eyelid to droop, and or have blurred or double vision. Distant from complications within the occipital area, other symptoms include complexity in breathing and swallowing, an alteration in the eminence of one’s voice, increased jeopardy of gagging and choking, a weak cough, and slurred speech. Anyone of every ethnicity or gender can be diagnosed with this malady; however, it is further prevalent in women between twenty to forty years of age, with a mean of twenty-eight years of age and men between fifty and seventy years of age. Antibodies are proteins that are used by the immune system to detect antigens that attack the body. Abnormal antibodies are present in the immune system of one who is diagnosed with myasthenia gravis and can be detected within blood. Although myasthenia gravis can cause ones muscle strength to decrease overtime, it can be treated with the assistance of medications, therapies to help improve muscle strength, and surgery, aimed at the exclusion of the thymus gland. (Myasthenia Gravis Fact Sheet) (The Basics of Myasthenia Gravis) When analyzing this rare neuromuscular disorder, scientists believe the thymus gland, because adults with the disease have a thymus gland that is hefty and abnormal. Having a large thymus which helps to produce antibodies, plays a vital role in the formation of myasthenia gravis, gland is rare because scientifically, as one grows in age, the gland decreases in size and is replaced by fat. In a retrospective study of thirty eight p... ... middle of paper ... ...t in Asians, than other racial demographics. Prior to now, the female to male ratio of myasthenia gravis was three females to every two males; with females having predominance in younger adults and men having predominance in older adults. However, things have changed whereby as life expectancy is significantly increasing, males have a higher chance of obtaining this disease as compared to females. (Sheth, Kevin) The prognosis for those with myasthenia gravis is pretty vivid; reason being that most can be recovered to an extent from this morbidity. In patients with generalized weakness, the nadir of maximal weakness usually is reached within the first three years diagnosed with the disease. Therefore, those who survive their first three years of the disorder have a better likelihood to attain a stable state or progress their health related standing. (Sheth, Kevin)
"Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Web. 20 May 2014.
Myasthenia Gravis is an autoimmune neuromuscular disorder. The term "myasthenia" is Latin for muscle weakness, and "gravis" for grave or serious. It is characterized by random weakness of voluntary muscle groups. Muscle groups most commonly affected include the eye muscles, facial, chewing and swallowing muscles, and shoulder and hip muscles. It is typical for a myasthenic patient to have a flattened smile, droopy eyes and an ineffective cough due to weak expiratory muscles, are all also associated with MG. Most myasthenic patients usually don't complain of extensive feelings of fatigue. They experience localized fatigue in specific, repeatedly used muscles. Today, MG is one of the most thoroughly understood neurological disorders, which has lead to treatments, which enormously improves the length and quality of life of myasthenics.
Based on the apparent symptoms of the elderly patient consisting of muscle weakness and a drooping of the eyelids, it appears that the cause of illness is myasthenia gravis, a condition that weakens the voluntary muscles of the body. The cause of this eyelid drooping, or muscle paralysis in general, is due to a misstep in the flow from the nerve fiber to the muscle fiber. It is known that an action potential in the muscle fiber is required for muscle contraction. However, if the release acetylcholine is blocked, or the number of acetylcholine receptors is reduced, it causes a chain of events that prevent muscle contraction. This prevention of the binding of acetylcholine to the receptor prevents
Myasthenia Gravis is a chronic autoimmune disorder that weakens the muscles. The name MG comes from the Latin words meaning grave muscle weakness. In 1672, Thomas Willis was the first to describe a patient with myasthenia gravis. There were periodic case descriptions over the years in 1900 regarding this disease. The disease remained a mystery, until 1960 when Simpson suggested that myasthenia gravis was caused by antibodies against the acetylcholine (ACh) receptor. Patrick and Lindstorm both proved that myasthenia gravis is autoimmune in origin by testing rabbits that were immunized with Torpedo ACh receptors became myasthenic. Today, myasthenia gravis is one the most thoroughly understood neurological disorders. This has lead to an overall understanding of the disease such as the cause associated, risk factors, complications, incidences, organ systems affected, signs and symptoms, diagnosis, and treatments, which enormously improve the length and quality of life for these individuals.
Lupus affects women more than men(www.womenshealth.gov). Lupus doesn’t come from a spider bite. Lupus means wolf in Latin in place of red ulcerations on the face(www.lupus-support.org). Nine out of ten people who get lupus are women, some have more problems with lupus than anyone else, but anyone can get lupus(www.medicinenet.com). It’s no reason why some have more problems than other’s(www.medicinenet.com). Lupus is three times more effective to African American women, than Caucasian women, it’s more common and severe in other minority populations, the cause of lupus is unknown(http://sciencelife.uchospitals.edu). Even though the cause of lupus isn’t known the genetic, hormonal, and environmental factors help in susceptibility(http://thelupusinitiative.org).
GBS is also known as acute inflammatory demylinating polyneuropathy and Landry's ascending paralysis after Jean B. O. Landry, a French physician who described a disorder that "paralyzed the legs, arms, neck, and breathing muscles of the chest." (4) (1) GBS was named after French physicians Georges Guillain and Jean Alexander Barre who, along with fellow physician Andre Stohl, described the differences of the spinal fluid of those who suffered f...
Muscular Dystrophy is a genetic disorder in which your muscles drastically weaken over time. Muscles are replaced with “connective tissue,” which is more of a fatty tissue than a muscular one. The connective tissue is the tissue that is commonly found in scars, and that same tissue is incapable of movement. Although Muscular Dystrophy affects muscles in general, other types affect certain groups of muscles, and happen at different periods throughout a lifetime. For example one of the most common types, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, targets muscles in the upper thigh and pelvis. The disease is displayed throughout early childhood, usually between ages four and seven. This genetic disorder occurs only in boys. People have difficulty sitting up or standing and lose their ability to walk in their early teens. Sadly most people die by the age of twenty. A second common type, Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy affects the same muscles as Duchenne, but first appears in teenage years. Most people with Becker’s only live into their forties (Fallon 1824-1825).
The most typical symptom that appears is the delay of motor skills and milestones amongst children, such as standing and sitting on their own. There is the degeneration of the muscle along with progressive muscle weakness of the legs and pelvic muscles, which is associated with a loss of muscle mass called wasting. This muscle weakness causes a wobbling, unsteady gait and difficulty climbing stairs. Muscle weakness also occurs in the arms, neck, as well as other areas, but not as severe as in the lower half of the
Muscular dystrophy (MD) is a genetic disorder that weakens the muscles that help the body move. People with MD have incorrect or missing information in their genes, which prevents them from making the proteins vital for healthy muscles. MD is genetic, so people are born with the problem — it is not contagious and you can't catch it from someone who has it. MD weakens muscles, so those with the disease can gradually lose the ability to do most physical activities e.g. walking. Someone with MD may start having muscle problems from birth or later in life. There are over 30 types of MD with various symptoms but this particular piece will explore Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD).
The first historical account of muscular dystrophy was identified by Sir Charles Bell in 1830. He wrote about a disease that caused weakness in boys that progressively got worse. In 1836 another scientist whose name is unknown reported about two brothers who developed muscle damage, generalized weakness. Also damaged muscle was replaced with fat and connective tissue. At the time the symptoms were thought to point to tuberculosis. During the 1850s reports of boys with progressive muscle weakness became more and more common. There were also reports of these boys losing the ability to walk and dying at an early age. In the next decade French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne gave and in depth account of 13 boys who had the most common ...
Lupus influences an alternate group of individuals; however, it is more commonly diagnosed in women. Women are nine times more vulnerable to Lupus than men are. Normally lupus happens in individuals who are between 15 to 45 years of age. While lupus does influence women more, Caucasian women are less inclined to advance lupus than Asian, Hispanic, and Native American women. There is not a definite explanation for why Lupus develops; even so, there are...
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is one the most common forms of muscular dystrophy and is also the most severe form of muscular dystrophy (“Diagnostic Tools,” 2015) with an approximate incidence of 1 in 3,500-3,600 newborn males, depending on the source (Bushby et al., 2009a; Habermann & Ghosh, 2007; “Duchenne,” 2014) and accounts for roughly half of all people with muscular dystrophy (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014). Muscular dystrophies are largely characterized by a progressive muscle weakness related to a protein defect. (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014; “Duchenne,” 2014) In DMD, muscle weakness progresses relatively rapidly, e.g., compared to Becker’s muscular dystrophy, and is caused by an absence of dystrophin (<75), intellectual disability that
Myasthenia Gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disorder affected the neuromuscular junction and the process of neuromuscular transmission. MG is a disease that reflects an autoimmune response against acetylcholine (ACh) receptors at the postsynaptic membrane at the motor endplate (Duffy, 99). Because there are a reduced number of operative receptors, the muscle responsiveness to the Ach that sparks muscle contraction is reduced. The repercussion for this is diminishing muscle contractions with repetition of use. With rest and time for nerves to reload the Ach supply, strength of the muscles may improve.
When a person begins to suffer from Guillain- Barre Syndrome their myelin sheath of their nervous system is being attacked and destroyed by the immune system (NINDS, 2011). The myelin sheath begins to lose its ability to transmit signals rapidly and affectively. Since signals are not getting transmitted to the brain fast enough, a person begins to notice fewer sensory responses from the rest of the body (NINDS, 2011). A person wouldn’t be able to tell right away or at all if an item they are touching is hot, cold, or causing pain. There also wouldn’t be good signal transmission from the brain to the rest of the body (NINDS, 2011). There would be signs of the muscles being unable to respond to the weakened or distraught signals they were receiving. Since the myelin sheath is responsible for transmitting the signals from a long distance, the upper and lower extremities would be the first to show signs of muscle dysfunction.