Nervous System Case

This article explains myasthenia gravis, the symptoms of it, and what is going on in the body to cause it. The study told the story of a college student named Annie who found herself becoming increasingly tired, not being able to use her hands, and she couldn’t figure out what the problem was. Later in the study, Annie goes to see a doctor who then refers her to a neurologist who puts her through a series of nerve conduction and electromyography (EMG) tests. After the neurologist looked at the tests the results showed that Annie’s blood had a high level of antibodies. The reason that Annie could not move her hands earlier in the story was because the antibodies in her blood were causing problems in the communication from the nerves to the muscles. Annie as well found out that she had a tumor on her thymus gland, which is located below your thyroid in between your lungs (Taylor 2014). The tumor could easily of been the reason for most of her problems , and the neurologist said it can be removed by a thyrectomy which could decrease her symptoms or cure them as a whole.

Keywords: Myasthenia gravis, electromyography, antibodies, thymus gland, thyrectomy.

TIRED SWIMMER 3

Part 1 Questions:

What vital signs or symptoms does Annie exhibit?

Annie exhibits: blurred vision, eye strain, aching and weakness from typing, shortage of breath, weakness in her body, and not being able to grab keys from her boyfriend with her hand.

Can you see any common features in Annie’s signs and symptoms?

The common feature between all of Annie’s symptoms are that they are relate back to the muscular system. After reading through the case we later see that her disease is strictly related back to her nerves and muscles, so it makes sense as to why everything is related to muscular system.

Why is Annie having problems breathing?

Annie is having problems breathing because the muscles that make up her respiratory system are not functioning properly or to there...