Relationship of myasthenia gravis with thymic pathology

Aim: to study the relationship of myasthenia gravis with different thymic pathologies. methods: this descriptive study was performed at the department of thoracic surgery,mayo hospital,lahore between january 2010 and january 2012. a total of 60 consecutive cases of myasthenia gravis aged 15 and above were included in this study. results: out of 60 cases included in this study,41(68.3%) were females. based on thymic pathologies,52(86.7%) cases were found to have thymic hyperplasia while 8(13.3%) cases had thymoma. of the 60 cases included in this study,54(90.0%) had features suggestive of myasthenia gravis whereas 6(10.0%) had no such evidence. conclusion: in conclusion it was observed that there is a strong relationship of myasthenia gravis with thymic pathology,with thymic hyperplasia accounting for a greater majority of cases than thymoma. moreover,a significant female predominance is observed when both thymic hyperplasia and thymoma are collectively taken into consideration as one of the likely causes of myasthenia gravis.