Myasthenia gravis in elderly subjects. A case study.

Introduction. - Myasthenia gravis is an uncommon autoimmune disease which a ffects all ages There are late-onset occurrences whose diagnosis is not con sidered often enough in geriatrics. Exegesis. - We report a case of late-onset myasthenia gravis with a 78-year -old woman who was multi-pathologic and hospitalized for a diplopia check-u p and recurrent falls. These stress the difficulty of suggesting myasthenia gravis in geriatrics due to the number of differential diagnoses that can mislead the physician. For the elderly subject, the diagnostic methodology is close to that of the younger subject The search for related diseases mus t be systematic. Conclusion. - Late-onset myasthenia gravis must remain a diagnosis present in the mind of the physician because of the significant improvement of the functional prognosis after the start of the treatment. The majority of subj ects will recover a normal life. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medical es Elsevier SAS.