Myasthenia gravis: effect of immunoactive therapies.

New immunoactive therapies, plasmapheresis, intravenous steroid pulse infusion and intravenous immunoglobulins were examined for efficacy on the basis of large casuistics of myasthenia gravis. The best results were achieved with combination of these procedures. Indications of the new methods: (i) respiratory crisis of any character (myasthenic, cholinergic or mixed oscillating crisis); (ii) the patients' preparation for thymectomy; (iii) post-thymectomy therapy aimed at improving the patients condition, at avoiding relapses, at shortening the time of steroid therapy and at repressing cholinergic drug therapy; (iv) patients of old age in crisis-prone state. The new methods, together with thymectomy, steroid therapy and immunosuppression, represent a very efficient and promising new way toward modern therapy of myasthenia gravis.