Women’s Quality of Life Impacted More Than Men With Myasthenia Gravis

Newswise — Phoenix, September 13, 2017 – Today, at the 2017 American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) Annual Meeting, Dr. Ikjae Lee, Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was honored as the Best Abstract Award Winner for his research, Gender and Quality of Life In Myasthenia Gravis Patients From The Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America Registry.

“Dr. Lee’s research has revealed meaningful insights into the treatment and management of patients with MG,” said Dr. Francis O. Walker, AANEM 2017 co-chair of the Program Committee, who selected the winner. “This is why we selected this abstract for the 2017 AANEM Best Abstract Award. This research will help fellow MG doctors in determining the right treatment options for MG patients.”

“This award has given me strong confidence that I am on the right path,” said Dr. Ikjae Lee. “This award also has provided an excellent opportunity to introduce the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America (MGFA) Patient Registry to fellow Myasthenia Gravis researchers as the data are open to those with ideas.”

The MGFA Patient Registry is a confidential database of people with Myasthenia Gravis (MG) built for research, treatment and patient information. In his review of the data, Dr. Lee said, “Sex differences were clearly present in the MG population and the effect of thymectomy appeared to be different as well.”

The key findings of his research showed that quality of life is impaired more so in women than in men with MG. Specifically, it showed that daily function was more impaired, comorbid autoimmune disease was more common, fatigue and depression scores were worse in women as well. When looking at quality of life scores of those with and without thymectomy, his research showed that quality of life scores were significantly better in women who had thymectomy than those who did not. The improvement was not observed in men who had thymectomy.

The two runners-up for Best Abstract included: Ioannis Karakis, MD, PhD of Emory University, Atlanta, GA, (now at Grady Memorial Hospital EMG lab) for the abstract, Electrophysiologic Features of Radial Neuropathy in Childhood and Adolescence, and Peter K. Broadhurst, MD, of the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, for the abstract, Effect of Hip and Knee Position on Nerve Conduction in the Common Fibular Nerve.

The full list of 2017 AANEM Annual Meeting abstracts are printed in the September 2017 issue of Muscle & Nerve and are available here in PDF. For more information on individual abstracts, contact Jay Schwinefus at [email protected].

About American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM)

Based in Rochester, Minnesota, the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) is the premier nonprofit membership association dedicated to the advancement of neuromuscular (NM), musculoskeletal and electrodiagnostic (EDX) medicine. The organization and its members work to improve the quality of patient care and advance the science of NM diseases and EDX medicine by serving physicians and allied health professionals who care for those with muscle and nerve disorders.

For more information about AANEM, visit aanem.org or find us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

###