A retrospective study of the medical data of 493 people suffering from autoimmune myasthenia followed by the university hospital centres of Strasbourg, Lyon, Grenoble and Angers reveals that the disease began after the age of 70 for 28% of them. Among these older patients :
- 76% improved with treatment during follow-up,
- despite lower doses, 41% reported side-effects associated with myasthenia treatments, with a better tolerance profile for corticosteroids (side-effects in 23% of cases) and mycophenolate mofetil (15%) than for azathioprine (53%) and rituximab (67%, but only three patients concerned),
- 14% reported severe side effects,
- 2.2% died from infections (cerebral toxoplasmosis, septicaemia) linked to immunosuppressants and 2.9% from respiratory failure linked to myasthenia.
