Department of Clinical Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
Wien Klin Wochenschr. 2012 Nov;124(21-22):763-8. doi: 10.1007/s00508-012-0258-2. Epub 2012 Nov 6.
The purpose of this study was to investigate recent epidemiological trends of myasthenia gravis (MG) in Austria.
We used the national hospital discharge register, which records the discharge diagnoses of all inpatient stays in Austria to calculate the yearly inpatient prevalence of MG from 1992 to 2009 (main or secondary diagnosis of MG). The population prevalence was indirectly estimated. The temporal and geographical variability of the inpatient prevalence was correlated with the number of practicing neurologists.
The inpatient prevalence of 2009 was calculated as 8.0 and the population prevalence as 15.69 (95 % CI 13.16-19.42) per 100,000. We observed a 2.2 fold increase in the inpatient prevalence between 1992 and 2009, which was mainly due to a rise in the number of older patients (³ 50 years). Partly this could be accounted for by an ageing of the population as a whole and a rise in the age of hospitalised patients. However, after adjusting for demographic factors an unexplained average yearly rise of 3.7-3.9 % remained. We found a significant spatial and temporal correlation of MG inpatient prevalence rates with the number of practicing neurologists, which increased over the same period.
The results from this study support the notion that the prevalence rate of MG in Austria is rising and near the higher end of the wide range discussed in the literature. Our data argue for the importance of specialist neurological care for the diagnosis of this disease.
本研究旨在调查奥地利重症肌无力（MG）的近期流行病学趋势。
我们使用国家住院登记处，该登记处记录了奥地利所有住院患者的出院诊断，以计算 1992 年至 2009 年（MG 的主要或次要诊断）MG 的年住院患病率。人群患病率是间接估计的。住院患病率的时间和空间变化与执业神经科医生的数量相关。
2009 年的住院患病率计算为 8.0，人群患病率为 15.69（95%CI 13.16-19.42）/100000。我们观察到 1992 年至 2009 年间住院患病率增加了 2.2 倍，这主要是由于老年患者（³50 岁）人数增加所致。部分原因可能是整个人口老龄化和住院患者年龄增加所致。然而，在调整人口统计学因素后，仍存在每年平均 3.7-3.9%的不明原因上升。我们发现 MG 住院患病率与执业神经科医生数量之间存在显著的时空相关性，且这一数量在同期有所增加。
本研究结果支持这样一种观点，即奥地利 MG 的患病率正在上升，接近文献中讨论的广泛范围的较高端。我们的数据表明，神经科专家护理对这种疾病的诊断非常重要。
