Background And Objectives: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease characterized by dysfunction at the neuromuscular junction. Treatment frequently includes corticosteroids (CSs) and IV immunoglobulin (IVIG). This study was conducted to determine whether immune globulin (human), 10% caprylate/chromatography purified (IGIV-C) could facilitate CS dose reduction in CS-dependent patients with MG.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To compare specificity and sensitivity of a commercially available fixed cell-based assay (F-CBA) to radioimmunoprecipitation assay (RIPA) for acetylcholine receptor antibody (anti-AChR) detection in myasthenia gravis (MG).
Methods: In this retrospective diagnostic cohort study we reviewed the clinical information of suspected MG patients evaluated at the London Health Sciences Centre MG clinic who had anti-AChR RIPA and then F-CBA performed, in order to classify them as MG or non-MG. Classification of each patient as anti-AChR F-CBA-negative/positive, RIPA-negative/positive, and MG/non-MG permitted specificity and sensitivity calculations for each assay.
We experimentally study a broadband implementation of the atomic frequency comb (AFC) rephasing protocol with a cryogenically cooled : crystal. To allow for storage of broadband pulses, we explore a novel, to the best of our knowledge, regime where the input photonic bandwidth closely matches the inhomogeneous broadening of the material (∼5), thereby significantly exceeding the hyperfine ground and excited state splitting (∼10). Through an investigation of different AFC preparation parameters, we measure a maximum efficiency of 10% after a rephasing time of 12.
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