Coexistence of epilepsy, myasthenia gravis and psoriasis vulgaris

Abstract

We report the case of a 36-year-old Chinese man with a history of complex partial seizure of temporal lobe origin since the age of 12 years, superimposed by myasthenia gravis since the age of 27 years and psoriasis vulgaris since the age of 29 years. With an eight-year follow-up, the above three diseases remained without complete remission. Anticonvulsant therapy (phenytoin and trimethadione) caused drug-induced myasthenia gravis, which should gradually disappear after discontinuing the drugs. However, the myasthenic symptoms and serum acetylcholine receptor antibody persisted following the discontinuation of phenytoin in our patient. Myasthenia gravis and psoriasis are both autoimmune diseases and correlate with specific human histocompatibility antigens. This suggests a close connection between these two diseases. The coexistence of epilepsy, myasthenia gravis and psoriasis vulgaris has not been previously reported, and to the best of our knowledge, our patient is the first reported case. The relationship among these three diseases requires further investigation.