[Immunologic aspects of the pathogenesis and treatment of myasthenia].

In 30 myasthenic patients the state of the T and B systems of immunity was examined: Depending on the initial findings the immunodepressant therapy (gamma-irradiation of the thymus, intrathymic blockades with hydrocortisone, ultraphonophoresis of hydrocortisone into the thymus area, oral administration of imuran, and intramuscular injections of antilymphocytic immunoglobulin) was given. A relationship between the immunological changes and the disease stage was discovered: the index of the 3H-thymidine incorporation was found to be 67.9 at the stage of disease exacerbation, and 208.8 at the stage of remission; the complement titre reached, respectively, 46.64 +/- 5.28 and 112.0 +/- 6.0 units per ml. The different methods of the immunodepressant therapy produced different effects on the patients' state and the immunological shifts. The combination of hydrocortisone with imuran appeared to be the most sparing and sufficiently efficacious method of the therapy.