Myasthenia gravis

Author: Huang Kunqiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-07-01
Features: This book introduces the current research on the etiology and pathogenesis of the disease, diagnostic and differential diagnostic methods, Western medical treatment, traditional Chinese medical treatment, integrated Chinese and Western medical treatment, and methods of self-care and monitoring... Myasthenia gravis is a refractory disease. This book introduces the current research on the etiology and pathogenesis of the disease, diagnostic and differential diagnostic methods, Western medical treatment, traditional Chinese medical treatment, integrated Chinese and Western medical treatment, and methods of self-care and monitoring. Patients reading this book can choose their direction of medical treatment based on their own conditions, and general practitioners reading this book can understand diagnostic and differential diagnostic methods and better select treatment plans. Excerpt:
1. What is Myasthenia Gravis In the past, people rarely heard of myasthenia gravis, but a few years ago, a TV drama titled "Get Your Fix" was broadcast, which moved countless viewers. The protagonist in the drama unfortunately suffered from myasthenia gravis. Since then, people have become less unfamiliar with the name of this disease, but most of them are still unclear about its clinical manifestations. In the minds of many, myasthenia gravis is considered a very serious and "incurable" disease. Is this understanding correct? What kind of disease is it after all? Myasthenia gravis, as the name suggests, is a disease primarily characterized by muscle weakness, but this is not the kind of "lack of energy" or "leg weakness" we usually refer to. I believe most people have experienced muscle weakness. After a day of heavy physical labor, you may feel exhausted all over at night; when it's time to eat, you may not be able to eat but still have to keep working, feeling weak in your limbs; when you have a severe cold with high fever and have been lying in bed for several days, you may feel weak in your legs when you first get up after recovery. These "muscle weakness" experiences are common among healthy people and can naturally subside with rest or gradually disappear due to adaptation. These are not considered diseases. Some diseases may also cause weakness in limbs or local muscles, such as motor neuron disease, periodic paralysis, polymyositis, and progressive muscular dystrophy. All of these can manifest as limb weakness, but these diseases are fundamentally different from myasthenia gravis in terms of their causes and mechanisms. Although they all show muscle weakness, there are significant differences in the degree of weakness, onset time, affected areas, and accompanying symptoms, so this type of "muscle weakness" is not myasthenia gravis. So, what is myasthenia gravis, and what are its clinical manifestations? The main manifestation of myasthenia gravis is weakness in skeletal muscles, which is prone to fatigue. Which muscles belong to skeletal muscles? Most muscles in the human body are attached to bones. Muscles that attach to bones and can directly receive conscious command and contract voluntarily are called skeletal muscles. Skeletal muscles are distributed in the head, neck, trunk, and limbs, and every facial expression and movement of the body is a manifestation of skeletal muscle activity. In this disease, the "muscle weakness" has characteristic manifestations. Its feature is that the symptoms of muscle weakness worsen after activity and improve after rest. Throughout the day, the symptoms are often milder in the morning and afternoon but worse in the evening and at night. Some people may ask, normal people also feel tired after activity, how can we distinguish it? We say that the fatigue of myasthenia gravis is not just a general feeling of tiredness but severe muscle weakness, even paralysis. However, after a period of rest, the muscle weakness can recover to varying degrees.