Introduction
Familial myasthenia is so unusual that each instance deserves reporting. Eighteen examples are recorded in the literature and will be discussed later.
The association of myasthenia gravis and hyperthyroidism is accepted by most workers as occurring often enough to be significant. In 1948, Eaton 1 noted that 6% of myasthenic patients developed hyperthyroidism. Millikan and Haines 2 quoted 5%, and they also found that only a fraction of 1% of patients with hyperthyroidism develop myasthenia.
Another interesting phenomenon reported in the literature is the "see-saw" relationship between these two diseases, ie, as the hyperthyroidism increases in severity, the myasthenia regresses and as the former is treated the latter becomes worse. There are more reports, however, which do not demonstrate the "see-saw" relationship but find both diseases improving together or having no influence upon each other at all.
The stimulus for this report was a pair of sisters who
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