Myasthenia gravis developing in an HIV-negative patient with Kaposi's sarcoma.

Sept 2012

Mantero V, Mascolo M, Bandettini di Poggio M, Caponnetto C, Pardini M.

Source

Department of Neurosciences, Niguarda Ca' Granda Hospital, Piazza Ospedale Maggiore 3, 20162, Milan, Italy, vittorio.mantero@ospedaleniguarda.it.

Abstract

Myasthenia gravis is a disorder of neuromuscular transmission caused by autoimmune mechanisms. We reported a possible association between seropositive myasthenia gravis and Kaposi's sarcoma in a HIV-negative subject and the observed interactions between the treatment regimen for these two conditions. A 62-year-old man came to our attention for ocular myasthenia gravis. He suffered from a classic form of Kaposi's sarcoma since about 1 year. When myasthenic symptoms worsened, the patient was started on prednisone and azathioprine. The patient had a significant worsening of Kaposi's sarcoma, so prednisone and azathioprine were reduced and he was treated with vinblastine, with improvement both in dermatologic than in neurological symptomatology. We propose some considerations: the potential correlation betweenKaposi's sarcoma and myasthenia gravis through immunological mechanism; myasthenia gravis as a paraneoplastic manifestation of Kaposi's sarcoma, and the role of an antitumoral agent as a treatment for both the conditions.

Springerlink

The rare case of laryngeal lesion in idiopathic (classic) Kaposi's sarcoma.

Nov-Dec 2011

[Article in Russian]

[No authors listed]

Abstract

The case report of laryngeal Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) in 59 year old HIV-negative man infected by herpes virus 8 (HHV-8) is in the paper. The primary onset of KS was on the legs. Lesion of laryngeal mucosa was developed sequentially, resulted in laryngeal stenosis and led to application of tracheostome. The skin and laryngeal mucosa lesions had homotypic histological structure and corresponded to early manifestation of KS preceded tumor node appearance.

PubMed