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Thymus and Myasthenia Gravis. Pathophysiological and Clinical Features

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Thymus Gland Pathology

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Abstract

In 1672 Thomas Willis published a book, “De anima brutorum” in which he wrote about “a woman who temporarily lost her power of speech and became mute as a fish” [1]. This has been interpreted as being the first written description of myasthenia gravis (MG). Others give credit to Wilks for the first report of disease in 1877, characterized as a bulbar palsy without anatomic lesion [2]. The first reasonably complete accounts were those of Erb in 1878 and Goldflam in 1893 [3, 4] and for many years thereafter, the disorder was referred to as the Erb- Goldflam syndrome. Jolly was the first to use the name myasthenia gravis in 1895 and to demonstrate the “myasthenic reaction” of muscle repeatedly stimulated by Faradism [5], introducing the basic criteria of instrumental techniques of MG diagnosis, the repetitive nerve stimulation, elaborated later by Desmedt [6].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Bolzano Hospital, Bolzano, Italy

    Loredana Capone, Riccarda Gentile & Rudolf Schoenhuber

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  1. Loredana Capone
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  2. Riccarda Gentile
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  3. Rudolf Schoenhuber
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Surgery and Surgical Specialities Division of Thoracic Surgery, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia General Hospital, Modena, Italy

    Corrado Lavini  & Uliano Morandi  & 

  2. Institute of Thoracic Pathology, University of Texas Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Cesar A. Moran

  3. Division of Neurology, Bolzano Hospital, Bolzano, Italy

    Rudolf Schoenhuber

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Capone, L., Gentile, R., Schoenhuber, R. (2008). Thymus and Myasthenia Gravis. Pathophysiological and Clinical Features. In: Lavini, C., Moran, C.A., Morandi, U., Schoenhuber, R. (eds) Thymus Gland Pathology. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-0828-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-0828-1_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Milano

  • Print ISBN: 978-88-470-0827-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-88-470-0828-1

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