You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Short report
Long-term treatment of generalised myasthenia gravis with FK506 (tacrolimus)
  1. T Konishi1,
  2. Y Yoshiyama2,
  3. M Takamori3,
  4. T Saida1,
  5. the Japanese FK506 MG Study Group*
  1. 1Department of Neurology, Utano National Hospital, Kyoto, Japan
  2. 2Department of Neurology, Chiba University School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan
  3. 3Neurological Center, Kanazawa-Nishi Hospital, Kanazawa, Japan
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr T Konishi
 Department of Neurology, Utano National Hospital, 8, Ondoyama-cho, Narutaki, Kyoto 616-8255, Japan; konishiunh.hosp.go.jp

Abstract

Efficacy and safety of long term use of FK506 (2–4.5 mg/day) for a maximum of two years were evaluated in 12 patients with generalised myasthenia gravis (MG). At the end of the study, eight patients (67%) showed improvement in either MG score or Activities in Daily Living score, and prednisolone dosage could be reduced in seven patients (58%), with a mean reduction ratio of 37%. Long term use of FK506 for MG can be more effective than short term administration, with no serious side effects.

  • AChR, acetylcholine receptor
  • ADL, activities of daily living
  • MG, myasthenia gravis
  • clinical study
  • FK506
  • myasthenia gravis

https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.2004.042176

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • ↵* Other participating members of the Japanese FK506 MG Study were: E Mukai (National Nagoya Hospital); G Sobue (Nagoya University School of Medicine); F Kanda (Kobe University School of Medicine); J-I Kira (Kyushu University School of Medicine); T Nakamura (Nagasaki University School of Medicine).

    • This study was supported by a grant from Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co, Ltd, Osaka, Japan.

    • Competing interests: none declared

    • Presented in part at the EFNS Congress in Vienna, Austria, October 2002.