Abstract
Autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy (AAG) and myasthenia gravis (MG) are both autoimmune
channelopathies mediated by antibodies directed against nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.
While both diseases target acetylcholine receptors, skeletal muscle and ganglionic
receptor subtypes have key immunologic and genetic distinctions, and reports of patients
with both AAG and MG are rare. We report a patient with antibody-confirmed AAG and
elevated levels of ACh binding antibodies that did not meet clinical or electrodiagnostic
criteria for MG. We presume that his skeletal muscle nAChR seropositivity was a false
positive, perhaps due to the cross reactivity of the patient's ganglionic nAChR antibodies
with skeletal nAChR subtypes.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 11, 2011
Accepted:
June 20,
2011
Received in revised form:
May 4,
2011
Received:
February 15,
2011
Identification
Copyright
© 2011 Elsevier B.V. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
