Thymolipoma-associated Myasthenia Gravis with High Titer of Anti-MuSKAb: A Case Report

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a neuromuscular junction disorder caused by pathogenic autoantibodies to some parts of the post-synaptic muscle endplates. About 85% of generalized MG patients have autoantibodies against post-synaptic acetyl-choline receptors (AChR). From the 10-15% of the remaining patients, 45-50% are positive for Muscle Specific Tyrosine Kinase-Antibody (MuSK-Ab). It is believed that the thymus has a critical role in the pathogenesis of the disease with AChR-Ab, specially in patients with thymic abnormalities. In contrast, the role of thymus gland in MG with anti-MuSK-Ab is not clearly obvious. Patients with this antibody virtually have normal or only minimal follicular hyperplastic thymus. The presence of anti-MuSK Ab in a thymolipomatous (an uncommon tumor of thymus) MG is an atypical and new finding of MG because of not only thymolipoma but the presence of anti-MuSK antibodies which makes this case different from the previous reports of the antibodies-associated MG. Here, we present a young woman with thymolipoma and MG (a very uncommon kind of tumor-associated MG) and high level of anti-MuSK-Ab.