2024 MGFA National Patient Conference - Keynote with Dr. Tuan Vu

Tuan Vu, MD, of USF Health discusses The MG Experience in 2024. This talk includes an overview of what causes MG, the earliest known cases and treatments, how MG is treated and managed today, and what the future may have in store.
Filmed April 28, 2024

[@maddyhaddy5245]

How many types of MG is there?

[@philipwilkie3239]

There really is only one category called MG - but there are three or four antibodies that can be involved. The most common one is the Acetylcholine Receptor (AChR) at about 80% of patients. Muscle Specific Kinease (MuSK) patients are about another 5 - 7 % and there are maybe one or two rare types I have read of LEMS and LRP4 but I don't know much about them. That leaves about 10 - 12% who have all the classic MG symptoms but have no positive antibody test - and are called seronegative. That group can face real challenges working out how to access treatment. On top pf this the AChR and MuSK antibodies can have differing modes of action, blocking, binding and modulating which adds on another layer of effects.

[@maddyhaddy5245]

Thanks so much

[@myastheniagravisfoundation8053]

We'd add that people can have generalized myasthenia gravis (symptoms across the body) and ocular myasthenia gravis (symptoms only in the eyes). LEMS is actually a different disease (Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome). Congenital myasthenia syndrome is another related neuromuscular disease that impacts individuals from childhood onward and has a genetic cause.