Aa
Confused???????
Hi,
I am somewhat confused with my latest diagnosis. In 1988 I was told I had MS....the finding came by a spinal tap, and then an MRI, which showed the lesions on my brain. I have been very fortunate with only 4 major flare ups, with complete remission following drug treatments. Recently I have been diagnosed with MG....could there be some sort of link between the two disorders?
I am somewhat confused with my latest diagnosis. In 1988 I was told I had MS....the finding came by a spinal tap, and then an MRI, which showed the lesions on my brain. I have been very fortunate with only 4 major flare ups, with complete remission following drug treatments. Recently I have been diagnosed with MG....could there be some sort of link between the two disorders?
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
When autoimmune diseases come in groups, or patients have incomplete diagnoses, or they have atypical autoimmune diseases (meaning that they look similar to a particular disease, but somethig is different or missing from the diagnosis), they often have chronic infections that can mimic autoimmune diseases.
The reason that this can happen is that intracellular bacterial infections like Mycoplasma species or C. pneumoniae cause many different signs/symptoms and when they leave cells, they can take a piece of the cell's membrane with it (thus they can temporarily carry host cell surface membrane antigens). When the patient responds immunologically to the infection, their immune system also responds to the host antigens carried by the infection (concomitment immune response), resulting in an autoimmune response.
Thus if infection is present in the joints, a patient may respond immunologically to synovial cell antigens carried by the infection, resulting in rheumatoid arthritis. If the infection is present in the lining of the heart, a patient may respond immunologically to the heart and display endocarditis, when in the central nervous system, a patient may respond immunologically to particular nerve tissue and display plaques where immune damage has occurred, etc. You get the idea.
The patients that fall into this category almost always respond to the appropriate antibiotics, but the response is usually very slow and sometimes cyclic.
I hope this information helps you.
Prof. Garth Nicolson
The reason that this can happen is that intracellular bacterial infections like Mycoplasma species or C. pneumoniae cause many different signs/symptoms and when they leave cells, they can take a piece of the cell's membrane with it (thus they can temporarily carry host cell surface membrane antigens). When the patient responds immunologically to the infection, their immune system also responds to the host antigens carried by the infection (concomitment immune response), resulting in an autoimmune response.
Thus if infection is present in the joints, a patient may respond immunologically to synovial cell antigens carried by the infection, resulting in rheumatoid arthritis. If the infection is present in the lining of the heart, a patient may respond immunologically to the heart and display endocarditis, when in the central nervous system, a patient may respond immunologically to particular nerve tissue and display plaques where immune damage has occurred, etc. You get the idea.
The patients that fall into this category almost always respond to the appropriate antibiotics, but the response is usually very slow and sometimes cyclic.
I hope this information helps you.
Prof. Garth Nicolson
Yeah karajo, you must be correct.....1988..MS.....1991....Graves Disease....and now 2011....MG.....I just hope there is an end to all of these disorders....thank you for your reply!
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