Chinese study highlights importance of cognitive impairment in myasthenia gravis

The existence of cognitive disorders in autoimmune myasthenia is still debated. Chinese researchers have investigated this question using a battery of tests:

• 41 patients with a generalized form of myasthenia participated in a study that also included a control group of 45 people matched for gender, age and education level,
• the protocol consisted of neuropsychological tests, neurometabolite studies and functional brain imaging,
• the results point to global cognitive impairment, particularly in visuo-spatial function, language and memory, with parallel dysfunction in the prefrontal region and the left thalamus,

Although not devoid of methodological bias, this work sheds new light on this issue.

Neurometabolic and Brain Functional Alterations Associated with Cognitive Impairment in Patients with Myasthenia Gravis: A Combined ¹H-MRS and fMRI Study. Zhou X, Yang Y, Zhu F et al. Neuroscience. 2024 Feb 28;544:12-27.