Markers of quality of life in patients with myastenia gravis

Abstract

Despite the potential curability and a positive prognosis of the course of myasthenia in geneal, the markers of quality of life in patients with this disease remain insufficiently studied and require further studying in order to optimize therapeutic approaches.Objective: to quantify the quality of life indicators in patients with myasthenia gravis, depending on the form and class of the disease.Material and methods. 182 patients with myasthenia gravi were examined, 147 (80.8%) of patients with a generalized form of the disease, 35 (19.2%) — with ocular, 128 (70.3%) women, 54 (men 29.7%). Clinical and neurological examination with the determination of the form and class of myasthenia gravis according to the classification of MGFA was performed. The assessment of quality of life was carried out according to the MG-QoL‑15 scale. Statistical processing was performed using non-parametric statistical methods due to the unnormal data distribution of the studied parameters.Results. In the total sample, the median quality of life indicators generally was reduced (21.5 (9.0; 33.0) points). In patients with an ocular form, the indicators of quality of life were generally not lowered, in contrast to patients with a generalized form, whose performance was significantly worse (p <0.001). With the increase in the class of myasthenia gravis in MGFA (and, consequently, the level of clinical manifestations), indicators of the quality of life of patients worsen (p <0.05). During the Spearman's rank correlation, it was established that the quality of life indicators statistically correlate with the clinical form of myasthenia gravis (generalized form) (ρ = –0.67; p <0.001), the MGFA class of myasthenia (ρ = –0.43; p <0.001) as well as the subclass of the disease (subclass B) (ρ = –0.46; p <0.001).Conclusions. The ocular form of myasthenia generally does not reduce the quality of life. The degree of clinical manifestations in case of generalized myasthenia largely affects the quality of life of patients.