Myasthenia gravis is a rare disease. Viets1 has estimated that the total number of cases in the United States is about 1,500. In spite of this, there is widespread interest in the disease because of the challenge presented with regard to its cause and treatment, because of the complex nature of the pathologic physiology involved and because modern advances in biologic chemistry have afforded a new array of technics for its study. Consequently, there is considerable literature dealing with the condition from groups of investigators with widely differing interests and approaches.
CLINICAL FEATURES
The classic clinical picture of myasthenia gravis permits its easy recognition. The undue fatigue of voluntary muscles after exercise, their return to normal or near normal after rest, the absence of muscular atrophy, the mildness of symptoms in the forenoon as compared with the afternoon and evening, the variable clinical course which may be interspersed with