more than 9,000 people suffering from myasthenia in Spain, according to estimates by the SEN
2 June: national day against myasthenia
– Although there is no definitive cure for this disease, current treatments can lead to achieve complete remission of symptoms
-discover what causes the autoimmune response in myasthenia gravis and better define the relationship between the gland of the Timo and this disease could be key in the search for the definitive cure.
Madrid, June of 2012. This Saturday, day of June 2, was commemorated in Spain the national day against myasthenia, a neuromuscular disease characterized by weakness and fatigue of skeletal muscle and whose most frequent form is myasthenia gravis. Since it is estimated that 1 of every 5,000 Spaniards are diagnosed the disease, the Sociedad Española de NeurologÃa (SEN) estimates that approximately 9,500 people suffer from this disease in our country, a figure that could be even greater if takes into account that, to deal with disease that presents many difficulties of diagnosisThere may be a large number of people still untreated.
One of the main problems for the detection of this disease is that no show or in the same way or in the same intensity in all people. In addition, its symptoms can be similar to those of other neurological processes or most common emotional disorders, with which it is easy that, before certain symptoms, initially, it tends to point to another type of diseases ”, explains Dr. Antonio Guerrero Solá, Coordinator of the study group of diseases neuromuscular of the society Spanish of Neurology. experience the fall of one or both eyelids, double vision, acute tiredness, lack of muscle strength and weakness in the extremities, mainly in arms, hands and fingers and legs and neck are the most common symptoms, but also difficulty to perform physical effort or smiling, gesturing, swallowing or chewingspeak, breathe or see changes in facial expression.
Myasthenia affects both men and women, in a similar proportion, and can develop at any age. Even so, there has been an increased incidence in the reproductive age of women (between the ages of 20 and 40) and men of middle age (50-70 years). However we are witnessing a change in the distribution that, due to the increase in the survival of the population, more and more cases at advanced ages are presented ”, says Dr. Antonio Guerrero Solá.
While there is no cure for myasthenia gravis, there are many treatments that help patients to reduce and improve their symptoms. With proper treatment, muscle weakness usually significantly improve and you can even get induce complete remission. Is for that reason that we are talking about one of the neuromuscular diseases with better prognosis, but without proper treatment, is a disease that can seriously affect the lives of patients. Devote efforts to improve diagnosis and advance in research of this disease, should be priorities for the scientific and medical community ”, maintains Dr. Antonio Guerrero Solá.
In recent years various scientific and technological advances have improved the knowledge of this disease, but we need to continue to devote efforts in scientific disorder compression that, as it happens with a large majority of autoimmune diseases, as is the case of myasthenia gravisthe cause is unknown. Has made much progress in explaining important aspects for this disease as it is the functioning and the structure of neuromuscular joints and the relationship between the thymus gland and autoimmunity, but we are still trying to discover what causes response autoimmune in myasthenia gravis and better define the relationship between the thymus gland and the disease. There are currently several investigations opened in these fields and obtain interesting conclusions, perhaps could be key to achieve the definitive cure of this disease ”, says Dr. Antonio Guerrero Solá.
