Diseases affecting the blood vessels are a significant cause of death among patients with myasthenia gravis (MG), according to a study recently presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine.
Research shows there has been an increasing trend in the number of deaths related to MG. However, studies regarding the precise cause of death among patients with MG remain relatively lacking.
A team of researchers hence conducted a study to investigate the factors that may contribute to deaths associated with MG. This was a population-based study, meaning that researchers looked at overall trends in MG-related mortality among a sample of individuals from the general population.
Researchers used a special disease code (International Classification of Disease code G70.0) to identify patients with a confirmed diagnosis of MG. They then utilized statistical analytical methods to understand trends across a number of common causes of death; specifically, they looked at annualized percent change in age-adjusted mortality rates.
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From a period of over two decades spanning from 1999 to 2023, researchers identified 39,454 deaths related to MG. The most common diseases that contributed to MG-related deaths included vascular diseases (20,914 cases), respiratory failure (9,064 cases), infections (8,879 cases) and cancer (5,740 cases).
Looking at vascular diseases, investigators noted that the age-adjusted mortality rates used to be stable (between 1999 and 2018), but this accelerated in recent years (between 2018 and 2021). In contrast, the age-adjusted mortality rates for respiratory failure showed an increasing trend between 1999 and 2017, which continued between 2017 and 2021.
This analysis demonstrates that vascular diseases account for a significant proportion of MG-related deaths in the U.S., with a notable increase from 2018 onwards. In addition, deaths associated with respiratory diseases contribute significantly to MG-associated mortality rates.
“Data from this study on [multiple causes of death] can guide future work that focuses in lowering MG-related mortality,” the authors of the study concluded.
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