Ophthalmoplegia of Myasthenia and Bronchial Neoplasm

Ophthalmologists are well aware that ocular myasthenia is a common cause for multiple or isolated ocular muscle pareses. A patient who first presented with ocular signs and symptoms of this disease and who turned out in addition to have bronchiogenic carcinoma prompted a review of the literature. The association of the myasthenic syndrome with bronchogenic carcinoma was well documented in the general medical literature, but my search uncovered no mention of it in either the ophthalmic journals or ophthalmic texts. Since ophthalmologists are frequently first consulted by patients with ocular symptoms of myasthenia, we should be cognizant of the possible association of these two diseases even though their etiologic relationship is not clear.

Report of Cases  A 50-year-old white male first complained of double vision beginning in May, 1959. The first clinical impression was that of divergence insufficiency at which time the patient showed 10 degrees of esophoria at distance