This is usually done using the accepted Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America Clinical Classification scale. Physical examination
During a physical examination to check for MG, a doctor might ask the person to perform repetitive movements. For instance, the doctor may ask one to look at a fixed point for 30 seconds and to relax the muscles of the forehead, because a person with MG and ptosis of the eyes might be involuntarily using the forehead muscles to compensate for the weakness in the eyelids. The clinical examiner might also try to elicit the "curtain sign" in a person by holding one of the persons eyes open, which in the case of MG will lead the other eye to close. Blood tests
If the diagnosis is suspected, serology can be performed:

One test is for antibodies against the acetylcholine receptor; the test has a reasonable sensitivity of 80–96%, but in ocular myasthenia, the sensitivity falls to 50%. A proportion of the people without antibodies against the acetylcholine receptor have antibodies against the MuSK protein. In specific situations, testing is performed for Lambert-Eaton syndrome. Electrodiagnostics
Muscle fibers of people with MG are easily fatigued, which the repetitive nerve stimulation test can help diagnose. In single-fiber electromyography, which is considered to be the most sensitive (although not the most specific) test for MG, a thin needle electrode is inserted into different areas of a particular muscle to record the action potentials from several samplings of different individual muscle fibers.
Epidemiology
MG occurs in all ethnic groups and both sexes. It most commonly affects women under 40 and people from 50 to 70 years old of either sex, but it has been known to occur at any age. Younger people rarely have thymoma. Prevalence in the United States is estimated at between 0.5 and 20.4 cases per 100,000, with an estimated 60,000 Americans affected. Within the United Kingdom, an estimated 15 cases of MG occur per 100,000 people. History
The first to write about MG were Thomas Willis, Samuel Wilks, Erb, and Goldflam. The term "myasthenia gravis pseudo-paralytica" was proposed in 1895 by Jolly, a German physician. Mary Walker treated a person with MG with physostigmine in 1934. Simpson and Nastuck detailed the autoimmune nature of the condition. In 1973, Patrick and Lindstrom used rabbits to show that immunization with purified muscle-like acetylcholine receptors caused the development of MG-like symptoms. Research
Immunomodulating substances, such as drugs that prevent acetylcholine receptor modulation by the immune system, are currently being researched. Some research recently has been on anti-c5 inhibitors for treatment research as they are safe and used in the treatment of other diseases. Ephedrine seems to benefit some people more than other medications, but it has not been properly studied as of 2014. In the laboratory, MG is mostly studied in model organisms, such as rodents. In addition, in 2015, scientists developed an in vitro functional, all-human, neuromuscular junction assay from human embryonic stem cells and somatic-muscle stem cells.