Myasthenia Gravis

On this page

Basics

• Summary
• Start Here
• Diagnosis and Tests
• Treatments and Therapies

Learn More

• Related Issues
• Specifics
• Genetics

See, Play and Learn

• No links available

Research

• Clinical Trials
• Journal Articles

Resources

• Find an Expert

For You

• Children
• Patient Handouts

Summary

Myasthenia gravis is a disease that causes weakness in your voluntary muscles. These are the muscles that you control. For example, you may have weakness in the muscles for eye movement, facial expressions, and swallowing. You can also have weakness in other muscles. This weakness gets worse with activity, and better with rest.

Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disease. Your body's immune system makes antibodies that block or change some of the nerve signals to your muscles. This makes your muscles weaker.

Other conditions can cause muscle weakness, so myasthenia gravis can be hard to diagnose. Tests used to make a diagnosis include blood, nerve, muscle, and imaging tests.

With treatment, the muscle weakness often gets much better. Medicines can help improve nerve-to-muscle messages and make muscles stronger. Other drugs keep your body from making so many abnormal antibodies. These medicines can have major side effects, so they should be used carefully. There are also treatments which filter abnormal antibodies from the blood or add healthy antibodies from donated blood. Sometimes, surgery to take out the thymus gland helps.

Some people with myasthenia gravis go into remission. This means that they do not have symptoms. The remission is usually temporary, but sometimes it can be permanent.

NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Start Here

• Myasthenia Gravis (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish
• Myasthenia Gravis (Muscular Dystrophy Association) - PDF
• Myasthenia Gravis (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)
• Myasthenia Gravis (Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women's Health) Also in Spanish

Diagnosis and Tests

• Electromyography (EMG) and Nerve Conduction Studies (National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish
• Myasthenia Gravis Tests (National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish

Treatments and Therapies

• Myasthenia Gravis (MG): Medical Management (Muscular Dystrophy Association)

Related Issues

• Employees with Myasthenia Gravis (Office of Disability Employment Policy)

Specifics

• Congenital Myasthenia (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

Genetics

• Myasthenia gravis: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)

Clinical Trials

• ClinicalTrials.gov: Myasthenia Gravis (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: Clinical and immune-related factors associated with exacerbation in adults with well-controlled...
• Article: Safety of COVID-19 vaccine in patients with myasthenia gravis: a self-controlled...
• Article: Development and validation of the scale for symptom clusters in patients...
• Myasthenia Gravis -- see more articles

Find an Expert

• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Also in Spanish

Children

• Myasthenia Gravis (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish

Patient Handouts

• Acetylcholine receptor antibody (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Myasthenia gravis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish