Phillips T L, Buschke F
Calif Med. 1967 Apr;106(4):282-9.
Myasthenia gravis is a serious and debilitating disease associated with conduction defects occurring at the myoneural junction. About 15 per cent of the patients have associated tumors of the thymus and 80 per cent of the remaining patients show abnormalities of the thymus. Although a definite relationship between cause and effect has not been proved, thymectomy or radiotherapy of the thymus does seem to influence the disease. Seven cases of myasthenia gravis in which radiation therapy was used at the University of California Medical Center are reported and compared with those described in the literature. It is concluded that patients whose disease is progressing and not well managed medically, and who have no evidence of thymoma, should be treated by irradiation-whether pre-operatively or as definitive treatment, depending on the result of irradiation. Those patients with evidence of thymoma should be irradiated before surgical procedure. Small tumors, or patients in whom surgical risk is increased, may be managed by radiation therapy alone.
重症肌无力是一种严重且使人衰弱的疾病，与发生在肌神经接头处的传导缺陷有关。约15%的患者伴有胸腺肿瘤，其余患者中有80%显示胸腺异常。尽管因果关系尚未得到证实，但胸腺切除术或胸腺放疗似乎确实会影响该病。本文报告了加利福尼亚大学医学中心使用放射治疗的7例重症肌无力病例，并与文献中描述的病例进行了比较。得出的结论是，疾病在进展且药物治疗效果不佳、且无胸腺瘤证据的患者，应接受放射治疗——无论是术前还是作为确定性治疗，这取决于放疗结果。有胸腺瘤证据的患者应在手术前接受放疗。小肿瘤患者或手术风险增加的患者，可单独采用放射治疗。
