Comorbidities in older patients with myasthenia gravis - Comparison between early- and late-onset disease

Abstract

Background: Multimorbidity is an emerging challenge in older myasthenia gravis patients, which can have even greater impact on quality of life and outcome than symptoms of myasthenia.

Aims of the study: We aimed to investigate comorbidities in older population and compare early-onset (EOMG) and late-onset (LOMG) myasthenia patients.

Methods: We investigated clinical information of patients from Oxford Myasthenia Centre age 50 or older. Data on 60 chronic disorders were extracted.

Results: We included 327 myasthenia patients (30.9% EOMG and 69.1% LOMG) with a median age of 70 years. Comorbidities were present in 94.5% of patients and accumulated with age. Hypertension (58.4% vs. 31.7%), hypercholesterolemia (41.2% vs. 23.8%), diabetes (24.8% vs. 11.9%), cataract (15.5% vs. 5.0%) and prostate disorders (15.0% vs. 2.0%) were more common in LOMG than EOMG, but there were no differences between 70 EOMG and 70 LOMG patients matched according to age and sex.

Conclusions: Comorbidities in older patients with myasthenia are very common, increase with age, and do not differ between early- and late-onset disease.

Keywords: Myasthenia gravis; autoimmune disease; comorbidity; early-onset myasthenia gravis; late-onset myasthenia gravis.