Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0014848 (achalasia)
 2,804 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Achalasia is a motor disorder of the oesopagus characterized by decrease in ganglion cell density in Auerbach's plexus. The cause of the lesion is unknown. This is to repeat on the occurrence of autoimmune phenomena in patients with achalasia, in particular circulating antibodies against Auerbach's plexus and its possible meaning. IgG-antibodies against Auerbach's plexus were determined by standard indirect immunofluorescence. Antibodies to the cytoplasm of Auerbach's plexus were found in 37 of 58 patients with achalasia at variable stages of the disease (I-IV) with a disease duration ranging from 1 to 20 years but only in 4 out of 54 healthy controls (specificity 93%, sensitivity 64%, p < 0.0001), and in none of 12 patients with Hirschsprung's disease as well as 12 patients with cancer of oesophagus and only in one of 11 patients with peptic oesophagitis as well as in one of 13 patients with myasthenia gravis. The present observations suggest that autoimmunity to Auerbach's plexus plays a role in the pathogenesis of achalasia, the mechanism of action is unknown.
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PMID:Autoantibodies to Auerbach's plexus in achalasia. 874 84

Myasthenia gravis (MG) and polymyositis (PM) are organ-specific autoimmune diseases. Occasional reports describe patients with clinical and pathologic features of both. Achalasia is idiopathic in nature, but autoimmune and inflammatory mechanisms have been proposed for this disorder as well. We describe a patient with dysphagia who was diagnosed at different points in time with all these three rare conditions. Despite at least putatively having immune mechanisms in common, an association between the three has not been previously described.
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PMID:Dysphagia with multiple autoimmune disease. 1094 18

Bulbar weakness and fatigue resulting in dysphagia and dysarthria is common in myasthenia gravis. In chronic MG it is often assumed that these symptoms herald an exacerbation of the patient's disease and doses of cholinergic agents and immunomodulatory therapies may be increased, along with initiation of plasma exchange. A case is presented in which dysphagia was refractory to standard MG therapy, leading to the subsequent discovery of cricopharyngeal sphincter achalasia as the primary cause of the patient's symptoms rather than an assumed myasthenia gravis exacerbation. The patient's dysphagia resolved after esophageal dilatation. Cricopharyngeal sphincter achalasia is a common disorder producing dysphagia in the elderly and needs to be considered in the evaluation of a myasthenic patient with worsening dysphagia when standard myasthenia gravis therapy fails. Discussion of myasthenia gravis, cholinergic therapy and cricopharyngeal sphincter achalasia is undertaken. Clinicians are encouraged to consider non-neurologic causes of worsening dysphagia in the myasthenic patient.
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PMID:Reversible oropharyngeal dysphagia secondary to cricopharyngeal sphincter achalasia in a patient with myasthenia gravis: a case report. 2018 78