Retraction Note to: Juvenile-onset myasthenia gravis: autoantibody status, clinical characteristics and genetic polymorphisms (Journal of Neurology, (2017), 264, 5, (955-962), 10.1007/s00415-017-8478-z)

Abstract

The Joint Editors-in-Chief have retracted this article [1] at the request of the University of Bergen and the Norwegian Board of Health Supervision. The research project described in this article consists of two parts—sample collection from Chinese patients with myasthenia gravis at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University and the analysis of these samples at the University of Bergen. After the publication of this article, it was discovered that the analysis of the samples in Norway was not covered under the existing ethics approval for an ongoing project on myasthenia gravis at the University of Bergen. The authors requested retrospective approval from their regional ethics committee, but their request was not granted. The Norwegian Board of Health Supervision and the University of Bergen conducted an investigation and requested that in the absence of ethics approval for the research conducted in Norway, this article be retracted. The University of Bergen has stated in the conclusion of their investigation that: ‘there is no reason to believe that any patients have been adversely affected as a consequence of this. The required permits have also been obtained from the Chinese [authorities].’ The Editors have no concerns regarding the scientific content and the conclusions of this article. Yu Hong, Geir Olve Skeie, Paraskevi Zisimopoulou, Katerina Karagiorgou, Socrates J. Tzartos, Xiang Gao, Yao-Xian Yue, Xu Zhang, Hai-Feng Li and Nils Erik Gilhus disagree with this retraction. Fredrik Romi has not responded to correspondence about this retraction.