Eaton-Lambert syndrome
Noun: A neuromuscular disorder characterized by muscle weakness, particularly in the hips and thighs, often accompanied by fatigue and back pain. It is an autoimmune condition where the body produces antibodies that interfere with the release of acetylcholine at neuromuscular junctions, disrupting communication between nerves and muscles. It is frequently associated with small-cell lung cancer.
The term is used as a medical diagnosis to describe a specific autoimmune syndrome. - The patient's proximal muscle weakness led the neurologist to suspect Eaton-Lambert syndrome. - A key diagnostic test for Eaton-Lambert syndrome is electromyography (EMG).
- As a paraneoplastic syndrome: The term is often used in oncology to describe this condition when it occurs as a remote effect of cancer, most commonly lung cancer.
- The development of Eaton-Lambert syndrome can sometimes precede the diagnosis of the underlying malignancy.
- Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS): This is the full and more precise clinical name for the condition.
- Myasthenic syndrome: A broader, less specific term that may refer to this disorder.
- Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS): The standard synonym in medical terminology.
- Eaton-Lambert myasthenic syndrome: A variant name order.
This term refers exclusively to a specific medical syndrome. It is not used in general or figurative language. The condition is distinct from myasthenia gravis, another autoimmune neuromuscular disease, though both involve weakness.
- a disease seen in patients with lung cancer and characterized by weakness and fatigue of hip and thigh muscles and an aching back; caused by antibodies directed against the neuromuscular junctions