Originally Posted by Stellatum

I'm quoting AnnieB3's post here in its own thread, because so many MG patients test negative for MG antibodies, which can delay or even prevent their diagnosis. I've seen different statistics about how many of us are seronegative, but my totally anecdotally based unscientific impression is that the numbers given are way too low. And think of it this way: if the factoid is "15% of MG patients are seronegative," that only really means "15% of MG patients who are diagnosed in spite of being seronegative are seronegative." Since being seronegative makes it difficult to get a diagnosis, then it follows that the true number of seronegative MG patients is significantly higher. Am I making sense here?

Seronegative patients only get a diagnosis if their other symptoms are text-book (and the text-books don't know everything!) or if they have access to a very knowledgeable and open-minded specialist. It's a known fact that 100% of patients with atypical MG don't have typical MG.

Abby